WorldWideScience

Sample records for refiner obtain approval

  1. 40 CFR 80.551 - How does a refiner obtain approval as a small refiner under this subpart?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ...) Applications for motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner status must be submitted to EPA by December 31, 2001...-operational between January 1, 1999, and January 1, 2000, the application for motor vehicle diesel fuel small...: (1) For motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiners— (i) A listing of the name and address of each...

  2. Biodiesel obtained from soapstock originated in a refining oil industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tobio Pérez, Indira; Díaz Domínguez, Yosvany; Piloto-Rodríguez, Ramón

    2017-01-01

    In the vegetable oil chemical refining process is obtained a by-product commonly named as soapstock, due to its physical and aspect properties. The soapstock free fatty acid content can reach to 50%. The present work shows a survey of researches focused on biodiesel obtaining from this by-product. The biodiesel is obtained following different routes and catalyzers features. A variety of reports shown the effectivity of the use of this by-product derived from vegetable oil refining industry to produce biodiesel. Several studies are addressed to the acid oil recovering involving processes without soapstock acidulation, with the aim of lowering costs and finding more attractive yields closing to the concept of zero wastes. (author)

  3. 40 CFR 80.540 - How may a refiner be approved to produce gasoline under the GPA gasoline sulfur standards in 2007...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... produce gasoline under the GPA gasoline sulfur standards in 2007 and 2008? 80.540 Section 80.540... Marine Fuel Geographic Phase-in Provisions § 80.540 How may a refiner be approved to produce gasoline under the GPA gasoline sulfur standards in 2007 and 2008? (a) A refiner that has been approved by EPA...

  4. Production and characterization of refined oils obtained from Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chakraborty, Kajal; Joseph, Deepu

    2015-01-28

    Crude Sardinella longiceps oil was refined in different stages such as degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization. The efficiency of these processes was evaluated on the basis of free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide (PV), p-anisidine (pAV), total oxidation (TOTOX), thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) values, Lovibond CIE-L*a*b* color analyses, and (1)H NMR or GC-MS experiments. The utilities of NMR-based proton signal characteristics as new analytical tools to understand the signature peaks and relative abundance of different fatty acids and monitoring the refining process of fish oil have been demonstrated. Phosphoric acid (1%) was found to be an effective degumming reagent to obtain oil with the lowest FFA, PV, pAV, TOTOX, and TBARS values and highest color reduction. Significant reduction in the contents of hydrocarbon functionalities as shown by the decrease in proton integral in the characteristic (1)H NMR region was demonstrated by using 1% H3PO4 during the course of the degumming process. A combination (1.25:3.75%) of activated charcoal and Fuller's earth at 3% concentration for a stirring time of 40 min was found to be effective in bleaching the sardine oil. This study demonstrated that unfavorable odor-causing components, particularly low molecular weight carbonyl compounds, could successfully be removed by the refining process. The alkane-dienals/alkanes, which cause unfavorable fishy odors, were successfully removed by distillation (100 °C) under vacuum with aqueous acetic acid solution (0.25 N) to obtain greater quality of refined sardine oil, a rich source of essential fatty acids and improved oxidative stability. The present study demonstrated that the four-stage refinement process of sardine oil resulted in a significant improvement in quality characteristics and nutritional values, particularly n-3 PUFAs, with improved fish oil characteristics for use in the pharmaceutical and functional food industries.

  5. Enzymatic Biodiesel Synthesis Using a Byproduct Obtained from Palm Oil Refining

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Igor Nascentes dos Santos Corrêa

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available An alternative route to produce biodiesel is based on esterification of free fatty acids present in byproducts obtained from vegetable oil refining, such as palm oil fatty acid distillate (PFAD. PFAD is a byproduct of the production of edible palm oil, which contains 96 wt.% of free fatty acids. The purpose of this work was to study biodiesel synthesis via esterification of PFAD with methanol and ethanol, catalyzed by commercial immobilized lipases (Novozym 435, Lipozyme RM-IM, and Lipozyme TL-IM, in a solvent-free system. The effects of reaction parameters such as type of lipase, enzyme amount, type of alcohol, alcohol amount, and enzyme reuse were studied. Fatty acid conversion of 93% was obtained after 2.5 h of esterification reaction between PFAD and ethanol using 1.0 wt.% of Novozym 435 at 60°C.

  6. 40 CFR 80.415 - What are the attest engagement requirements for gasoline sulfur compliance applicable to refiners...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... refinery or importer produced or imported any GPA gasoline under § 80.216 or the refiner has approved...) Obtain a written representation from the company representative stating the refinery produces gasoline... shall be completed in 2004 through 2006 for a refinery or importer that produces gasoline subject to the...

  7. Physicochemical and sensory characterization of refined and deodorized tuna (Thunnus albacares) by-product oil obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Oliveira, Dayse A S B; Minozzo, Marcelo G; Licodiedoff, Silvana; Waszczynskyj, Nina

    2016-09-15

    In this study, the effects of chemical refining and deodorization on fatty acid profiles and physicochemical and sensory characteristics of the tuna by-product oil obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis were evaluated. Enzymatic extraction was conducted for 120 min at 60 °C and pH 6.5 using Alcalase at an enzyme-substrate ratio of 1:200 w/w. The chemical refining of crude oil consisted of degumming, neutralization, washing, drying, bleaching, and deodorization; deodorization was conducted at different temperatures and processing times. Although chemical refining was successful, temperature and chemical reagents favored the removal of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from the oil. Aroma attributes of fishy odor, frying odor, and rancid odor predominantly contributed to the sensory evaluation of the product. Deodorization conditions of 160 °C for 1h and 200 °C for 1h were recommended for the tuna by-product oil, which is rich in PUFA. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. 75 FR 53371 - Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities: Obtaining Approval of Alternative Vapor-Gas Dispersion Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-31

    .... PHMSA-2010-0226] Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities: Obtaining Approval of Alternative Vapor-Gas... safety standards for siting liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. Those standards require that an..., and Handling of Liquefied Natural Gas. That consensus [[Page 53372

  9. 13 CFR 127.304 - How does a concern obtain certification from an approved certifier?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 13 Business Credit and Assistance 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false How does a concern obtain certification from an approved certifier? 127.304 Section 127.304 Business Credit and Assistance SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS FEDERAL CONTRACT ASSISTANCE PROCEDURES Certification of EDWOSB or WOSB...

  10. Effect of strontium on the grain refining efficiency of Mg-3Al alloy refined by carbon inoculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Du Jun; Yang Jian; Kuwabara, Mamoru; Li Wenfang; Peng Jihua

    2009-01-01

    The effect of Sr on the grain refining efficiency of the Mg-3Al alloy refined by carbon inoculation has been investigated in the present study. A significant grain refinement was obtained for the Mg-3Al alloy treated with either 0.2% C or 0.2% Sr. The Al-C-O particles were found in the sample refined by 0.2% C, and the element O should come from reaction between Al 4 C 3 nuclei of Mg grains and water during the process of sample preparation. The grain size of the sample refined by carbon inoculation was further decreased after the combined addition of Sr. The grain size decreased with increasing Sr content. Much higher refining efficiency was obtained when the Sr addition was increased to 0.5%. Sr is an effective element to improve the grain refining efficiency for the Mg-Al alloys refined by carbon inoculation. The number of Al 4 C 3 particles in the sample refined by the combination of carbon and Sr was more than that in the sample refined by only carbon. No Al-C-O-Sr-rich particles were obviously found in the sample refined by the combination of carbon and a little (<0.5%) Sr addition

  11. India beckons participants in burgeoning refining sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that India has opened its refining sector to full private investment for the first time in more than 2 decades. The government again gave a green light to construction of three 120,000 b/d grassroots refineries in East, West, and Central India. The projects had won various governmental approvals in the past few years, but never moved off high center for a variety of economic and regulatory reasons. The difference this time is that the government is offering interests in the projects to private foreign and domestic investors. It's part of India's push to boost overall refining capacity by more than 80% this century

  12. 40 CFR 80.554 - What compliance options are available to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... an approved motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner under § 80.550(a) but does not qualify as a NRLM... to NRLM diesel fuel small refiners? 80.554 Section 80.554 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) REGULATION OF FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Motor Vehicle...

  13. Niobium-base grain refiner for aluminium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Silva Pontes, P. da; Robert, M.H.; Cupini, N.L.

    1980-01-01

    A new chemical grain refiner for aluminium has been developed, using inoculation of a niobium-base compound. When a bath of molten aluminium is inoculated whith this refiner, an intermetallic aluminium-niobium compound is formed which acts as a powerful nucleant, producing extremely fine structure comparable to those obtained by means of the traditional grain refiner based on titanium and boron. It was found that the refinement of the structure depends upon the weight percentage of the new refiner inoculated as well as the time of holding the bath after inoculation and before pouring, but mainly on the inoculating temperature. (Author) [pt

  14. Biocide usage in cooling towers in the electric power and petroleum refining industries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Veil, J.; Rice, J.K.; Raivel, M.E.S.

    1997-11-01

    Cooling towers users frequently apply biocides to the circulating cooling water to control growth of microorganisms, algae, and macroorganisms. Because of the toxic properties of biocides, there is a potential for the regulatory controls on their use and discharge to become increasingly more stringent. This report examines the types of biocides used in cooling towers by companies in the electric power and petroleum refining industries, and the experiences those companies have had in dealing with agencies that regulate cooling tower blowdown discharges. Results from a sample of 67 electric power plants indicate that the use of oxidizing biocides (particularly chlorine) is favored. Quaternary ammonia salts (quats), a type of nonoxidizing biocide, are also used in many power plant cooling towers. The experience of dealing with regulators to obtain approval to discharge biocides differs significantly between the two industries. In the electric power industry, discharges of any new biocide typically must be approved in writing by the regulatory agency. The approval process for refineries is less formal. In most cases, the refinery must notify the regulatory agency that it is planning to use a new biocide, but the refinery does not need to get written approval before using it. The conclusion of the report is that few of the surveyed facilities are having any difficulty in using and discharging the biocides they want to use.

  15. A Macdonald refined topological vertex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foda, Omar; Wu, Jian-Feng

    2017-07-01

    We consider the refined topological vertex of Iqbal et al (2009 J. High Energy Phys. JHEP10(2009)069), as a function of two parameters ≤ft\\lgroup x, y \\right\\rgroup , and deform it by introducing the Macdonald parameters ≤ft\\lgroup q, t \\right\\rgroup , as in the work of Vuletić on plane partitions (Vuletić M 2009 Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 361 2789-804), to obtain ‘a Macdonald refined topological vertex’. In the limit q → t , we recover the refined topological vertex of Iqbal et al and in the limit x → y , we obtain a qt-deformation of the original topological vertex of Aganagic et al (2005 Commun. Math. Phys. 25 425-78). Copies of the vertex can be glued to obtain qt-deformed 5D instanton partition functions that have well-defined 4D limits and, for generic values of ≤ft\\lgroup q, t\\right\\rgroup , contain infinite-towers of poles for every pole present in the limit q → t .

  16. 42 CFR 433.113 - Reduction of FFP for failure to operate a system and obtain initial approval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Reduction of FFP for failure to operate a system... ADMINISTRATION Mechanized Claims Processing and Information Retrieval Systems § 433.113 Reduction of FFP for failure to operate a system and obtain initial approval. (a) Except as waived under § 433.130 or 433.131...

  17. Towards automated crystallographic structure refinement with phenix.refine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Afonine, Pavel V., E-mail: pafonine@lbl.gov; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Echols, Nathaniel; Headd, Jeffrey J.; Moriarty, Nigel W. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Mustyakimov, Marat; Terwilliger, Thomas C. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, M888, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Urzhumtsev, Alexandre [CNRS–INSERM–UdS, 1 Rue Laurent Fries, BP 10142, 67404 Illkirch (France); Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy 1, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (France); Zwart, Peter H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Adams, Paul D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, MS64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

    2012-04-01

    phenix.refine is a program within the PHENIX package that supports crystallographic structure refinement against experimental data with a wide range of upper resolution limits using a large repertoire of model parameterizations. This paper presents an overview of the major phenix.refine features, with extensive literature references for readers interested in more detailed discussions of the methods. phenix.refine is a program within the PHENIX package that supports crystallographic structure refinement against experimental data with a wide range of upper resolution limits using a large repertoire of model parameterizations. It has several automation features and is also highly flexible. Several hundred parameters enable extensive customizations for complex use cases. Multiple user-defined refinement strategies can be applied to specific parts of the model in a single refinement run. An intuitive graphical user interface is available to guide novice users and to assist advanced users in managing refinement projects. X-ray or neutron diffraction data can be used separately or jointly in refinement. phenix.refine is tightly integrated into the PHENIX suite, where it serves as a critical component in automated model building, final structure refinement, structure validation and deposition to the wwPDB. This paper presents an overview of the major phenix.refine features, with extensive literature references for readers interested in more detailed discussions of the methods.

  18. Assessment of national systems for obtaining local siting acceptance of nuclear waste management facilities (October 1, 1985). Volume I. Political structure and formal system for obtaining approvals for siting waste management facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paige, H.W.; Numark, N.J.

    1985-01-01

    This report is the fourth in a series of periodic surveys of approaches and progress in other countries in dealing with the problems of obtaining local acceptance for siting of waste management facilities. This volume contains the following sections: Nation's political/industrial structure for obtaining waste management siting decisions; and Nation's formal legal procedure for obtaining necessary approvals for siting nuclear waste management facilities. Two of the countries visited, Finland and Sweden, have had major changes in the past two years in their formal/legal procedures for obtaining waste management siting decisions. (LM)

  19. Optimizing refiner operation with statistical modelling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Broderick, G [Noranda Research Centre, Pointe Claire, PQ (Canada)

    1997-02-01

    The impact of refining conditions on the energy efficiency of the process and on the handsheet quality of a chemi-mechanical pulp was studied as part of a series of pilot scale refining trials. Statistical models of refiner performance were constructed from these results and non-linear optimization of process conditions were conducted. Optimization results indicated that increasing the ratio of specific energy applied in the first stage led to a reduction of some 15 per cent in the total energy requirement. The strategy can also be used to obtain significant increases in pulp quality for a given energy input. 20 refs., 6 tabs.

  20. Colombia defines innovative plans for refining and petrochemicals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carta Petrolera

    1998-01-01

    Ecopetrol plans to increase capacity at its Cartagena refinery to 140,000 barrels per day until 2002. The new production will be for basic streams to supply and stimulate new industries in the petrochemical sector. Investment has concentrated on exploration and production and far less on the rest of the oil sector, but now Ecopetrol will be new financing plans to develop refining in keeping with government guidelines. The Ecopetrol Board approved the development plan for the Cartagena Refinery, this consist of increasing capacity

  1. Pacific Basin Heavy Oil Refining Capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Hackett

    2013-02-01

    additional refineries, both of which are not expected, given the volume of lighter and more valuable crude from the Middle East finding its way to Pacific Basin markets. Consequently, any new refinery capacity is not likely to be dedicated to Canadian crude shipments. This places increasing importance on the need to enter into long-term contracts to supply Pacific Basin refineries, backed up by evidence of adequate transportation capacity. Canadians will have to show first, and quickly, that we are committed to building pipelines that will bring sufficient volumes of oil to the Pacific coast necessary to give the refiners the certainty they need to invest in infrastructure for refining Canadian oil. Access to this crucial market will depend critically on the outcome of the pipeline approval process, and also the cost to ship from Canada. If Canada does not approve of the Pacific coast pipeline expansions, or takes too long in doing so, it could find its crude unable to effectively penetrate the world’s most promising oil export market.

  2. Variability-Specific Abstraction Refinement for Family-Based Model Checking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dimovski, Aleksandar; Wasowski, Andrzej

    2017-01-01

    and property, while the number of possible scenarios is very large. In this work, we present an automatic iterative abstraction refinement procedure for family-based model checking. We use Craig interpolation to refine abstract variational models based on the obtained spurious counterexamples (traces...

  3. Towards automated crystallographic structure refinement with phenix.refine

    OpenAIRE

    Afonine, Pavel V.; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Echols, Nathaniel; Headd, Jeffrey J.; Moriarty, Nigel W.; Mustyakimov, Marat; Terwilliger, Thomas C.; Urzhumtsev, Alexandre; Zwart, Peter H.; Adams, Paul D.

    2012-01-01

    phenix.refine is a program within the PHENIX package that supports crystallographic structure refinement against experimental data with a wide range of upper resolution limits using a large repertoire of model parameterizations. It has several automation features and is also highly flexible. Several hundred parameters enable extensive customizations for complex use cases. Multiple user-defined refinement strategies can be applied to specific parts of the model in a single refinement run. An i...

  4. Realization of the Zone Length Measurement during Zone Refining Process via Implementation of an Infrared Camera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danilo C. Curtolo

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Zone refining, as the currently most common industrial process to attain ultrapure metals, is influenced by a variety of factors. One of these parameters, the so-called “zone length”, affects not only the ultimate concentration distribution of impurities, but also the rate at which this distribution is approached. This important parameter has however neither been investigated experimentally, nor ever varied for the purpose of optimization. This lack of detections may be due to the difficult temperature measurement of a moving molten area in a vacuum system, of which the zone refining methodology is comprised. Up to now, numerical simulation as a combination of complex mathematical calculations, as well as many assumptions has been the only way to reveal it. This paper aims to propose an experimental method to accurately measure the molten zone length and to extract helpful information on the thermal gradient, temperature profile and real growth rate in the zone refining of an exemplary metal, in this case aluminum. This thermographic method is based on the measurement of the molten surface temperature via an infrared camera, as well as further data analysis through the mathematical software MATLAB. The obtained results show great correlation with the visual observations of zone length and provide helpful information to determine the thermal gradient and real growth rate during the whole process. The investigations in this paper approved the application of an infrared camera for this purpose as a promising technique to automatically control the zone length during a zone refining process.

  5. Conditional approval: Japan lowers the bar for regenerative medicine products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sipp, Douglas

    2015-04-02

    A new system for conditional approval of regenerative medicine products will allow products of undetermined efficacy to enter the Japanese market. The potential scientific, economic, and ethical implications of this program highlight the need for further discussion and refinement. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. 24 CFR 1000.108 - How is HUD approval obtained by a recipient for housing for non low-income Indian families and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... recipient for housing for non low-income Indian families and model activities? 1000.108 Section 1000.108... AMERICAN HOUSING ACTIVITIES Affordable Housing Activities § 1000.108 How is HUD approval obtained by a.... Assistance to non low-income Indian families must be in accordance with § 1000.110. Proposals may be...

  7. Hirshfeld atom refinement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capelli, Silvia C; Bürgi, Hans-Beat; Dittrich, Birger; Grabowsky, Simon; Jayatilaka, Dylan

    2014-09-01

    Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR) is a method which determines structural parameters from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data by using an aspherical atom partitioning of tailor-made ab initio quantum mechanical molecular electron densities without any further approximation. Here the original HAR method is extended by implementing an iterative procedure of successive cycles of electron density calculations, Hirshfeld atom scattering factor calculations and structural least-squares refinements, repeated until convergence. The importance of this iterative procedure is illustrated via the example of crystalline ammonia. The new HAR method is then applied to X-ray diffraction data of the dipeptide Gly-l-Ala measured at 12, 50, 100, 150, 220 and 295 K, using Hartree-Fock and BLYP density functional theory electron densities and three different basis sets. All positions and anisotropic displacement parameters (ADPs) are freely refined without constraints or restraints - even those for hydrogen atoms. The results are systematically compared with those from neutron diffraction experiments at the temperatures 12, 50, 150 and 295 K. Although non-hydrogen-atom ADPs differ by up to three combined standard uncertainties (csu's), all other structural parameters agree within less than 2 csu's. Using our best calculations (BLYP/cc-pVTZ, recommended for organic molecules), the accuracy of determining bond lengths involving hydrogen atoms from HAR is better than 0.009 Å for temperatures of 150 K or below; for hydrogen-atom ADPs it is better than 0.006 Å(2) as judged from the mean absolute X-ray minus neutron differences. These results are among the best ever obtained. Remarkably, the precision of determining bond lengths and ADPs for the hydrogen atoms from the HAR procedure is comparable with that from the neutron measurements - an outcome which is obtained with a routinely achievable resolution of the X-ray data of 0.65 Å.

  8. Grain refining efficiency of Al-Ti-C alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birol, Yuecel

    2006-01-01

    The problems associated with boride agglomeration and the poisoning effect of Zr in Zr-bearing alloys have created a big demand for boron-free grain refiners. The potential benefits of TiC as a direct nucleant for aluminium grains have thus generated a great deal of interest in TiC-bearing alloys in recent years. In Al-Ti-C grain refiners commercially available today, Al 3 Ti particles are introduced into the melt along with the TiC particles. Since the latter are claimed to nucleate α-Al directly, it is of great technological interest to see if reducing the Ti:C ratio further, i.e., increasing the C content of the grain refiner, will produce an increase in the grain refining efficiency of these alloys. A series of grain refiner samples with the Ti concentration fixed at 3% and a range of C contents between 0 and 0.75 were obtained by appropriately mixing an experimental Al-3Ti-0.75C alloy with Al-10Ti alloy and commercial purity aluminium. The grain refining efficiency of these grain refiners was assessed to investigate the role of the insoluble TiC and the soluble Al 3 Ti particles. The optimum chemistry for the Al-Ti-C grain refiners was also identified

  9. Grain refining efficiency of Al-Ti-C alloys

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Birol, Yuecel [Materials Institute, Marmara Research Center, TUBITAK, 41470 Gebze, Kocaeli (Turkey)]. E-mail: yucel.birol@mam.gov.tr

    2006-09-28

    The problems associated with boride agglomeration and the poisoning effect of Zr in Zr-bearing alloys have created a big demand for boron-free grain refiners. The potential benefits of TiC as a direct nucleant for aluminium grains have thus generated a great deal of interest in TiC-bearing alloys in recent years. In Al-Ti-C grain refiners commercially available today, Al{sub 3}Ti particles are introduced into the melt along with the TiC particles. Since the latter are claimed to nucleate {alpha}-Al directly, it is of great technological interest to see if reducing the Ti:C ratio further, i.e., increasing the C content of the grain refiner, will produce an increase in the grain refining efficiency of these alloys. A series of grain refiner samples with the Ti concentration fixed at 3% and a range of C contents between 0 and 0.75 were obtained by appropriately mixing an experimental Al-3Ti-0.75C alloy with Al-10Ti alloy and commercial purity aluminium. The grain refining efficiency of these grain refiners was assessed to investigate the role of the insoluble TiC and the soluble Al{sub 3}Ti particles. The optimum chemistry for the Al-Ti-C grain refiners was also identified.

  10. Development of an efficient grain refiner for Al-7Si alloy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kori, S.A.; Murty, B.S.; Chakraborty, M. [Indian Inst. of Technol., Kharagpur (India). Dept. of Metall. and Mater. Eng.

    2000-03-15

    The response of Al-7Si alloy towards grain refinement by Al-Ti-B master alloys (with different Ti-B ratios) at different addition levels has been studied in detail. The results indicate that high B-containing master alloys are powerful grain refiners when compared to conventional grain refiners like Al-5Ti-lB master alloys. In the present study, indigenously developed master alloys have been used for the grain refinement of alloys Al-7Si and LM-25. Significant improvements in mechanical properties have been obtained with a combination of grain refiner and Sr as modifier. (orig.)

  11. Optimization bitumen-based upgrading and refining schemes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Munteanu, M.; Chen, J. [National Centre for Upgrading Technology, Devon, AB (Canada); Natural Resources Canada, Devon, AB (Canada). CanmetENERGY

    2009-07-01

    This poster highlighted the results of a study in which the entire refining scheme for Canadian bitumen as feedstocks was modelled and simulated under different process configurations, operating conditions and product structures. The aim of the study was to optimize the economic benefits, product quality and energy use under a range of operational scenarios. Optimal refining schemes were proposed along with process conditions for existing refinery configurations and objectives. The goal was to provide guidelines and information for upgrading and refining process design and retrofitting. Critical steps were identified with regards to the upgrading process. It was concluded that the information obtained from this study would lead to significant improvement in process performance and operations, and in reducing the capital cost for building new upgraders and refineries. The simulation results provided valuable information for increasing the marketability of bitumen, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts associated with bitumen upgrading and refining. tabs., figs.

  12. Refining revolution

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fesharaki, F.; Isaak, D.

    1984-01-01

    A review of changes in the oil refining industry since 1973 examines the drop in capacity use and its effect on profits of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries compared to world refining. OPEC countries used their new oil revenues to expand Gulf refineries, which put additional pressure on OECD refiners. OPEC involvement in global marketing, however, could help to secure supplies. Scrapping some older OECD refineries could improve the percentage of capacity in use if new construction is kept to a minimum. Other issues facing refiners are the changes in oil demand patterns and government responses to the market. 2 tables.

  13. A simple nodal force distribution method in refined finite element meshes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Jai Hak [Chungbuk National University, Chungju (Korea, Republic of); Shin, Kyu In [Gentec Co., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Dong Won [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Seungyon [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2017-05-15

    In finite element analyses, mesh refinement is frequently performed to obtain accurate stress or strain values or to accurately define the geometry. After mesh refinement, equivalent nodal forces should be calculated at the nodes in the refined mesh. If field variables and material properties are available at the integration points in each element, then the accurate equivalent nodal forces can be calculated using an adequate numerical integration. However, in certain circumstances, equivalent nodal forces cannot be calculated because field variable data are not available. In this study, a very simple nodal force distribution method was proposed. Nodal forces of the original finite element mesh are distributed to the nodes of refined meshes to satisfy the equilibrium conditions. The effect of element size should also be considered in determining the magnitude of the distributing nodal forces. A program was developed based on the proposed method, and several example problems were solved to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method. From the results, accurate stress field can be recognized to be obtained from refined meshes using the proposed nodal force distribution method. In example problems, the difference between the obtained maximum stress and target stress value was less than 6 % in models with 8-node hexahedral elements and less than 1 % in models with 20-node hexahedral elements or 10-node tetrahedral elements.

  14. Process for refining hydrocarbons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Risenfeld, E H

    1924-11-26

    A process is disclosed for the refining of hydrocarbons or other mixtures through treatment in vapor form with metal catalysts, characterized by such metals being used as catalysts, which are obtained by reduction of the oxide of minerals containing the iron group, and by the vapors of the hydrocarbons, in the presence of the water vapor, being led over these catalysts at temperatures from 200 to 300/sup 0/C.

  15. Grid refinement model in lattice Boltzmann method for stream function-vorticity formulations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shin, Myung Seob [Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Dongyang Mirae University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-03-15

    In this study, we present a grid refinement model in the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for two-dimensional incompressible fluid flow. That is, the model combines the desirable features of the lattice Boltzmann method and stream function-vorticity formulations. In order to obtain an accurate result, very fine grid (or lattice) is required near the solid boundary. Therefore, the grid refinement model is used in the lattice Boltzmann method for stream function-vorticity formulation. This approach is more efficient in that it can obtain the same accurate solution as that in single-block approach even if few lattices are used for computation. In order to validate the grid refinement approach for the stream function-vorticity formulation, the numerical simulations of lid-driven cavity flows were performed and good results were obtained.

  16. The regulations concerning refining business of nuclear source material and nuclear fuel materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-01-01

    Regulations specified here cover application for designation of undertakings of refining (spallation and eaching filtration facilities, thickening facilities, refining facilities, nuclear material substances or nuclear fuel substances storage facilities, waste disposal facilities, etc.), application for permission for alteration (business management plan, procurement plan, fund raising plan, etc.), application for approval of merger (procedure, conditions, reason and date of merger, etc.), submission of report on alteration (location, structure, arrangements processes and construction plan for refining facilities, etc.), revocation of designation, rules for records, rules for safety (personnel, organization, safety training for employees, handling of important apparatus and tools, monitoring and removal of comtaminants, management of radioactivity measuring devices, inspection and testing, acceptance, transport and storage of nuclear material and fuel, etc.), measures for emergency, submission of report on abolition of an undertaking, submission of report on disorganization, measures required in the wake of revocation of designation, submission of information report (exposure to radioactive rays, stolen or missing nuclear material or nuclear fuel, unusual leak of nuclear fuel or material contaminated with nuclear fuel), etc. (Nogami, K.)

  17. Zone refining of sintered, microwave-derived YBCO superconductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Warrier, K.G.K.; Varma, H.K.; Mani, T.V.; Damodaran, A.D.; Balachandran, U.

    1993-07-01

    Post-sintering treatments such as zone melting under thermal gradient has been conducted on sintered YBCO tape cast films. YBCO precursor powder was derived through decomposition of a mixture of nitrates of cations in a microwave oven for ∼4 min. The resulting powder was characterized and made into thin sheets by tape casting and then sintered at 945 C for 5 h. The sintered tapes were subjected to repeated zone refining operations at relatively high speeds of ∼30 mm/h. A microstructure having uniformly oriented grains in the a-b plane throughout the bulk of the sample was obtained by three repeated zone refining operations. Details of precursor preparation, microwave processing and its advantages, zone refining conditions, and microstructural features are presented in this paper

  18. Refined Fuchs inequalities for systems of linear differential equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gontsov, R R

    2004-01-01

    We refine the Fuchs inequalities obtained by Corel for systems of linear meromorphic differential equations given on the Riemann sphere. Fuchs inequalities enable one to estimate the sum of exponents of the system over all its singular points. We refine these well-known inequalities by considering the Jordan structure of the leading coefficient of the Laurent series for the matrix of the right-hand side of the system in the neighbourhood of a singular point

  19. The Refining Mechanism of Super Gravity on the Solidification Structure of Al-Cu Alloys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuhou Yang

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available There is far less study of the refining effect of super gravity fields on solidification structures of metals than of the effects of electrical currents, magnetic and ultrasonic fields. Moreover, the refining mechanisms of super gravity are far from clear. This study applied a super gravity field to Al-Cu alloys to investigate its effect on refining their structures and the mechanism of interaction. The experimental results showed that the solidification structure of Al-Cu alloys can be greatly refined by a super gravity field. The major refining effect was mainly achieved when super gravity was applied at the initial solidification stage; only slight refinement could be obtained towards the end of solidification. No refinement was obtained by the super gravity treatment on pure liquid or solid stages. The effectiveness of super gravity results from its promoting the multiplication of crystal nuclei, which we call “Heavy Crystal Rain”, thereby greatly strengthening the migration of crystal nuclei within the alloy. Increasing the solute Cu content can increase nucleation density and restrict the growth of crystals, which further increases the refining effect of super gravity. Within this paper, we also discuss the motile behavior of crystals in a field of super gravity.

  20. Zone-refining of beryllium(II) acetylacetonate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Isao; Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Ueno, Keihei

    1975-01-01

    Zone melting was applied to bis (acetylacetonato) beryllium(II), Be(AA) 2 , to remove trace metal constiutents. The effective distribution coefficient, k, of a minor component measured in a binary mixture with the majority of Be(AA) 2 , fell in the range of 0.4 to 0.8, while the value obtained in a multiple component mixture fell in the range of 0.8 to 0.9 except Zn(II)- and Ni(II) chelates. Cr(AA) 3 was concentrated upward in the direction of the zone travelling, and similar results were obtained with Cu(II)-, Co(III)- Fe(III)- and Al(III) acetylacetonates, while Zn(II)-, Ni(II)- and Mn(III) chelates were fractionated in the both ends of the column. On the other hand, when the zone was moved downward, the minor components were concentrated in the lower end of a column. Efficiency in zone refining was compared to each other between the upward- and downward zone travelling modes on the crude beryllium acetylacetonates obtained from a commercial reagent of beryllium nitrate, and the latter mode was found more effective in the concentration of trace components. Discussion was given on possible mechanisms resulting in the difference in the refining efficiency. (author)

  1. Characterization and process development for the selective removal of Sn, Sb, and As from anode slime obtained from electrolytic copper refining

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steinlechner S.

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this work was to develop a process for the removal of Sn, Sb and As from anode slime out of copper refinery to disburden a subsequent pyrometallurgical processing for precious metals refinement. For this reason, a detailed literature survey was conducted, followed by a characterization to find the present compounds/alloys and their morphology. A newly developed process concept for the separate extraction of the afore mentioned three target metals was developed and verified by leaching experiments, combined with thermodynamic calculations on their behavior under varying conditions. In this context, the influence of leaching temperature, alkalinity of leaching solution, and solid-liquid ration were evaluated on the extraction yields of Sn, As, and Sb, as well as how to exploit these findings to obtain separate streams enriched in the respective metals.

  2. 78 FR 29292 - Partial Approval and Partial Disapproval of Air Quality State Implementation Plans; Arizona...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-05-20

    ... Smelter, American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) Hayden Smelter, Catalyst Paper, and Arizona... Smelter, ASARCO Hayden Smelter, Catalyst Paper, and AEPCO Apache Generating Station. In summary, we propose to approve a revised set of BART-eligible units for the Miami and Hayden smelters; the State's...

  3. Uranium refining by solvent extraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kraikaew, J.

    1996-01-01

    The yellow cake refining was studied in both laboratory and semi-pilot scales. The process units mainly consist of dissolution and filtration, solvent extraction, and precipitation and filtration. Effect of flow ratio (organic flow rate/ aqueous flow rate) on working efficiencies of solvent extraction process was studied. Detailed studies were carried out on extraction, scrubbing and stripping processes. Purity of yellow cake product obtained is high as 90.32% U 3 O 8

  4. Preparation of refined oils, etc

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1931-02-03

    A process is disclosed for the preparation of refined sulfur-containing oils from sulfur-containing crude oils obtained by distillation of bituminous limestone, characterized by this crude oil being first subjected to a purification by distillation with steam in the known way, then treated with lime and chloride of lime and distilled preferably in the presence of zinc powder, whereby in this purification a rectification can be added for the purpose of recovering definite fractions.

  5. Unit-cell refinement from powder diffraction scans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pawley, G.S.

    1981-01-01

    A procedure for the refinement of the crystal unit cell from a powder diffraction scan is presented. In this procedure knowledge of the crystal structure is not required, and at the end of the refinement a list of indexed intensities is produced. This list may well be usable as the starting point for the application of direct methods. The problems of least-squares ill-conditioning due to overlapping reflections are overcome by constraints. An example using decafluorocyclohexene, C 6 F 10 , shows the quality of fit obtained in a case which may even be a false minimum. The method should become more relevant as powder scans of improved resolution become available, through the use of pulsed neutron sources. (Auth.)

  6. Bayesian ensemble refinement by replica simulations and reweighting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hummer, Gerhard; Köfinger, Jürgen

    2015-12-01

    We describe different Bayesian ensemble refinement methods, examine their interrelation, and discuss their practical application. With ensemble refinement, the properties of dynamic and partially disordered (bio)molecular structures can be characterized by integrating a wide range of experimental data, including measurements of ensemble-averaged observables. We start from a Bayesian formulation in which the posterior is a functional that ranks different configuration space distributions. By maximizing this posterior, we derive an optimal Bayesian ensemble distribution. For discrete configurations, this optimal distribution is identical to that obtained by the maximum entropy "ensemble refinement of SAXS" (EROS) formulation. Bayesian replica ensemble refinement enhances the sampling of relevant configurations by imposing restraints on averages of observables in coupled replica molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the strength of the restraints should scale linearly with the number of replicas to ensure convergence to the optimal Bayesian result in the limit of infinitely many replicas. In the "Bayesian inference of ensembles" method, we combine the replica and EROS approaches to accelerate the convergence. An adaptive algorithm can be used to sample directly from the optimal ensemble, without replicas. We discuss the incorporation of single-molecule measurements and dynamic observables such as relaxation parameters. The theoretical analysis of different Bayesian ensemble refinement approaches provides a basis for practical applications and a starting point for further investigations.

  7. The Influence of Grain Refiners on the Efficiency of Ceramic Foam Filters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Towsey, Nicholas; Schneider, Wolfgang; Krug, Hans-Peter; Hardman, Angela; Keegan, Neil J.

    An extensive program of work has been carried out to evaluate the efficiency of ceramic foam filters under carefully controlled conditions. Work reported at previous TMS meetings showed that in the absence of grain refiners, ceramic foam filters have the capacity for high filtration efficiency and consistent, reliable performance. The current phase of the investigation focuses on the impact grain refiner additions have on filter performance. The high filtration efficiencies obtained using 50 or 80ppi CFF's in the absence of grain refiners diminish when Al-3%Ti-1%B grain refiners are added. This, together with the impact of incoming inclusion loading on filter performance and the level of grain refiner addition are considered in detail. The new generation Al-3%Ti-0.15%C grain refiner has also been included. At typical addition levels (1kg/tonne) the effect on filter efficiency is similar to that for TiB2based grain refiners. The work was again conducted on a production scale using AA1050 alloy. Metal quality was determined using LiMCA and PoDFA. Spent filters were also analysed.

  8. Adaptive temporal refinement in injection molding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karyofylli, Violeta; Schmitz, Mauritius; Hopmann, Christian; Behr, Marek

    2018-05-01

    Mold filling is an injection molding stage of great significance, because many defects of the plastic components (e.g. weld lines, burrs or insufficient filling) can occur during this process step. Therefore, it plays an important role in determining the quality of the produced parts. Our goal is the temporal refinement in the vicinity of the evolving melt front, in the context of 4D simplex-type space-time grids [1, 2]. This novel discretization method has an inherent flexibility to employ completely unstructured meshes with varying levels of resolution both in spatial dimensions and in the time dimension, thus allowing the use of local time-stepping during the simulations. This can lead to a higher simulation precision, while preserving calculation efficiency. A 3D benchmark case, which concerns the filling of a plate-shaped geometry, is used for verifying our numerical approach [3]. The simulation results obtained with the fully unstructured space-time discretization are compared to those obtained with the standard space-time method and to Moldflow simulation results. This example also serves for providing reliable timing measurements and the efficiency aspects of the filling simulation of complex 3D molds while applying adaptive temporal refinement.

  9. Petroleum refining industry in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walls, W.D.

    2010-01-01

    The oil refining industry in China has faced rapid growth in oil imports of increasingly sour grades of crude with which to satisfy growing domestic demand for a slate of lighter and cleaner finished products sold at subsidized prices. At the same time, the world petroleum refining industry has been moving from one that serves primarily local and regional markets to one that serves global markets for finished products, as world refining capacity utilization has increased. Globally, refined product markets are likely to experience continued globalization until refining investments significantly expand capacity in key demand regions. We survey the oil refining industry in China in the context of the world market for heterogeneous crude oils and growing world trade in refined petroleum products. (author)

  10. On the refinement calculus

    CERN Document Server

    Vickers, Trevor

    1992-01-01

    On the Refinement Calculus gives one view of the development of the refinement calculus and its attempt to bring together - among other things - Z specifications and Dijkstra's programming language. It is an excellent source of reference material for all those seeking the background and mathematical underpinnings of the refinement calculus.

  11. Uranium refining process using ion exchange membrane

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, Akira

    1977-01-01

    As for the method of refining uranium ore being carried out in Europe and America at present, uranium ore is roughly refined at the mine sites to yellow cake, then this is transported to refineries and refined by dry method. This method has the following faults, namely the number of processes is large, it requires expensive corrosion-resistant materials because of high temperature treatment, and the impurities in uranium tend to increase. On the other hand, in case of EXCER method, treatment is carried out at low temperature, and high purity uranium can be obtained, but the efficiency of electrolytic reduction process is extremely low, and economically infeasible. In the wet refining method called PNC process, uranium tetrafluoride is produced from uranium ore without making yellow cake, therefore the process is rationalized largely, and highly economical. The electrolytic reduction process in this method was developed by Asahi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. by constructing the pilot plant in Ningyotoge Mine. The ion exchange membrane, the electrodes, and the problems concerning the process and the engineering for commercial plants were investigated. The electrolytic reduction process, the pilot plant, the development of the elements of electrolytic cells, the establishment of analytical process, the measurement of the electrolytic characteristics, the demonstration operation, and the life time of the electrolytic diaphragm are reported. (Kako, I.)

  12. North American refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Osten, James; Haltmaier, Susan

    2000-01-01

    This article examines the current status of the North American refining industry, and considers the North American economy and the growth in demand in the petroleum industry, petroleum product demand and quality, crude oil upgrading to meet product standards, and changes in crude oil feedstocks such as the use of heavier crudes and bitumens. Refining expansion, the declining profits in refining, and changes due to environmental standards are discussed. The Gross Domestic Product and oil demand for the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela for the years 1995-2020 are tabulated

  13. Applying for ethical approval for research: the main issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelling, Leslie

    2016-01-13

    The need to obtain research ethical approval is common to all research involving human participants. This approval must be obtained before research participants can be approached and before data collection can begin. The process of ethical review is one way that research participants can be confident that possible risks have been considered, minimised and deemed acceptable. This article outlines some of the main issues researchers should consider when planning an application for research ethical approval by answering the following six questions: 'Do I need research ethical approval?', 'How many applications will I need to make?', 'Where should I apply for research ethical approval?', 'What do I need to include in my application?', 'What do research ethics committees look for?' and 'What other approvals might I need?' Answering these questions will enable researchers to navigate the ethical review process.

  14. Why should ethics approval be required prior to publication of health promotion research?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newson, Ainsley J; Lipworth, Wendy

    2015-12-01

    Most academic journals that publish studies involving human participants require evidence that the research has been approved by a human research ethics committee (HREC). Yet journals continue to receive submissions from authors who have failed to obtain such approval. In this paper, we provide an ethical justification of why journals should not, in general, publish articles describing research that has no ethics approval, with particular attention to the health promotion context. Using theoretical bioethical reasoning and drawing on a case study, we first rebut some potential criticisms of the need for research ethics approval. We then outline four positive claims to justify a presumption that research should, in most instances, be published only if it has been undertaken with HREC approval. We present four justifications for requiring ethics approval before publication: (1) HREC approval adds legitimacy to the research; (2) the process of obtaining HREC approval can improve the quality of an intervention being investigated; (3) obtaining HREC approval can help mitigate harm; and (4) obtaining HREC approval demonstrates respect for persons. This paper provides a systematic and comprehensive assessment of why research ethics approval should generally be obtained before publishing in the health promotion context. So what? Journals such as the Health Promotion Journal of Australia have recently begun to require research ethics approval for publishing research. Health promotion researchers will be interested in learning the ethical justification for this change.

  15. Formal refinement of extended state machines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Fayolle

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In a traditional formal development process, e.g. using the B method, the informal user requirements are (manually translated into a global abstract formal specification. This translation is especially difficult to achieve. The Event-B method was developed to incrementally and formally construct such a specification using stepwise refinement. Each increment takes into account new properties and system aspects. In this paper, we propose to couple a graphical notation called Algebraic State-Transition Diagrams (ASTD with an Event-B specification in order to provide a better understanding of the software behaviour. The dynamic behaviour is captured by the ASTD, which is based on automata and process algebra operators, while the data model is described by means of an Event-B specification. We propose a methodology to incrementally refine such specification couplings, taking into account new refinement relations and consistency conditions between the control specification and the data specification. We compare the specifications obtained using each approach for readability and proof complexity. The advantages and drawbacks of the traditional approach and of our methodology are discussed. The whole process is illustrated by a railway CBTC-like case study. Our approach is supported by tools for translating ASTD's into B and Event-B into B.

  16. Carcinogenicity of petroleum lubricating oil distillates: effects of solvent refining, hydroprocessing, and blending.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halder, C A; Warne, T M; Little, R Q; Garvin, P J

    1984-01-01

    Certain refining processes were investigated to determine their influence on the dermal carcinogenic activity of petroleum-derived lubricating oil distillates. Specifically, the effects of solvent refining, hydroprocessing, a combination of both processes, and the blending of oils processed using each technique were evaluated in standard mouse skin-painting bioassays. The refining process used as well as the level or severity of treatment greatly influenced the carcinogenic outcome of processed lubricating oils. Solvent refining at severities normally used appeared to eliminate carcinogenicity. In contrast, hydroprocessing alone at mild levels of treatment was successful only in reducing the carcinogenic potency; severe hydroprocessing conditions were necessary to eliminate carcinogenic activity without the use of additional refining processes. Carcinogenic activity could also be eliminated by following moderate solvent refining with mild hydroprocessing. Blending of hydroprocessed oils with solvent-refined oils resulted in a substantial reduction or even elimination of carcinogenic activity. However, the degree of protection obtained varied with the particular distillates used and appeared largely dependent on the inherent biological activity of the hydroprocessed oil.

  17. Refinement of Parallel and Reactive Programs

    OpenAIRE

    Back, R. J. R.

    1992-01-01

    We show how to apply the refinement calculus to stepwise refinement of parallel and reactive programs. We use action systems as our basic program model. Action systems are sequential programs which can be implemented in a parallel fashion. Hence refinement calculus methods, originally developed for sequential programs, carry over to the derivation of parallel programs. Refinement of reactive programs is handled by data refinement techniques originally developed for the sequential refinement c...

  18. Creating value in refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cobb, C.B.

    2001-01-01

    This article focuses on recent developments in the US refining industry and presents a model for improving the performance of refineries based on the analysis of the refining industry by Cap Gemini Ernst and Young. The identification of refineries in risk of failing, the construction of pipelines for refinery products from Gulf State refineries, mergers and acquisitions, and poor financial performance are discussed. Current challenges concerning the stagnant demand for refinery products, environmental regulations, and shareholder value are highlighted. The structure of the industry, the creation of value in refining, and the search for business models are examined. The top 25 US companies and US refining business groups are listed

  19. Applicability of refined Born approximation to non-linear equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rayski, J.

    1990-01-01

    A computational method called ''Refined Born Approximation'', formerly applied exclusively to linear problems, is shown to be successfully applicable also to non-linear problems enabling me to compute bifurcations and other irregular solutions which cannot be obtained by the standard perturbation procedures. (author)

  20. Impact of Crude Oil Quality on the Refining Conditions and Composition of Nutraceuticals in Refined Palm Oil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sampaio, Klicia A; Ayala, Jose Vila; Van Hoed, Vera; Monteiro, Simone; Ceriani, Roberta; Verhé, Roland; Meirelles, Antonio J A

    2017-08-01

    Palm oil is the major vegetable oil used worldwide due to its unique properties. The effect of crude palm oil acidity on the final free fatty acids (FFA) content, neutral oil loss (NOL), and nutraceutical compounds, such as carotenes, total tocols (tocopherols and tocotrienols), squalene, and phytosterols was investigated. A central composite design was employed to study the influence of the refining conditions: temperature (200 to 260 °C), steam percentage (0.5% to 3.5%), and initial FFA content (2.2% to 6.0%) on the quality of the refined product. The results revealed that initial palm oil acidity is a statistically important parameter to obtain commercially acceptable values for final FFA content. The increase of temperature presented the most important effect on the reduction of all nutraceutical compounds. The highest tocopherols (88%), phytosterols (98%), and squalene retention (84%) was obtained when applying the mildest temperature (200 °C). From the experimental results, 3 equations were generated enabling the prediction of the free fatty acids content, the tocols content, and the losses of neutral oil. Therefore, this work contributes to the understanding and optimization of the process for the production of palm oil with high nutraceutical quality and low free fatty acid contents. © 2017 Institute of Food Technologists®.

  1. The limit of grain refinement on equal channel angular deformation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kopylov, V.I.; Chuvil'deev, V.N.

    2004-01-01

    Experimental and theoretical study results on the process of strain-induced grain refinement under severe plastic deformation are described. A generalization is made for experimental results on deformation dispersing of copper, magnesium and aluminium base alloys as well as unalloyed metals. The model is developed which allows calculating the minimal grain size being able to result from equal channel angular pressing. The expressions describing the dependence of the limit of grain refinement on the nature of the material and severe plastic deformation rate and temperature are obtained [ru

  2. Southeast Asian oil markets and refining

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yamaguchi, N.D. [FACTS, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii (United States)

    1999-09-01

    An overview of the Southeast Asian oil markets and refining is presented concentrating on Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand refiners. Key statistics of the refiners in this region are tabulated. The demand and the quality of Indonesian, Malaysian, Philippine, Singapore and Thai petroleum products are analysed. Crude distillation unit capacity trends in the Southeastern Asian refining industry are discussed along with cracking to distillation ratios, refining in these countries, and the impact of changes in demand and refining on the product trade.

  3. Southeast Asian oil markets and refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, N.D.

    1999-01-01

    An overview of the Southeast Asian oil markets and refining is presented concentrating on Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand refiners. Key statistics of the refiners in this region are tabulated. The demand and the quality of Indonesian, Malaysian, Philippine, Singapore and Thai petroleum products are analysed. Crude distillation unit capacity trends in the Southeastern Asian refining industry are discussed along with cracking to distillation ratios, refining in these countries, and the impact of changes in demand and refining on the product trade

  4. Electronic Approval of Invoices (AEF)

    CERN Document Server

    2004-01-01

    With a view to the simplification of administrative procedures, AS and FI Departments have completed the second phase of the new procedure for the electronic approval of invoices via the EDH application. The aim of this new procedure is to rationalise the invoice approval process, notably by eliminating paper copies from the approval circuit. This will simplify the processing of invoices and facilitate their timely settlement, while at the same time maintaining a high level of security. Phase II includes handling the electronic approval process of invoices whose amounts do not correspond exactly to those of the associated orders. In such cases, budgetary approval is required for the entire invoiced amount. Further information can be obtained at : http://ais.cern.ch/projs/AEF/help/F_help.htm Phase II of the procedure will be introduced gradually with effect from April 2004. Finance Department, Accounts Payable Section Tel: 72295 Organisation and Procedures Tel: 75885 Information Technologies Department,...

  5. Refining animal experiments: the first Brazilian regulation on animal experimentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de A e Tréz, Thales

    2010-06-01

    The very first law on animal experimentation has been approved recently in Brazil, and now is part of a set of the legal instruments that profile the Brazilian government's attitude toward the use of animals in experiments. Law 11794/08 establishes a new legal instrument that will guide new methods of conduct for ethics committees, researchers and representatives of animal protection societies. This comment aims to analyse critically the implications that this law brings to Brazilian reality. The link between it and the Russell and Burch's Three Rs concept is defined, and certain problems are identified. The conclusion is that the body of the law emphasises the refinement of animal experiments, but gives little importance to the principles of reduction and replacement.

  6. Repetitive Identification of Structural Systems Using a Nonlinear Model Parameter Refinement Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeng-Wen Lin

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a statistical confidence interval based nonlinear model parameter refinement approach for the health monitoring of structural systems subjected to seismic excitations. The developed model refinement approach uses the 95% confidence interval of the estimated structural parameters to determine their statistical significance in a least-squares regression setting. When the parameters' confidence interval covers the zero value, it is statistically sustainable to truncate such parameters. The remaining parameters will repetitively undergo such parameter sifting process for model refinement until all the parameters' statistical significance cannot be further improved. This newly developed model refinement approach is implemented for the series models of multivariable polynomial expansions: the linear, the Taylor series, and the power series model, leading to a more accurate identification as well as a more controllable design for system vibration control. Because the statistical regression based model refinement approach is intrinsically used to process a “batch” of data and obtain an ensemble average estimation such as the structural stiffness, the Kalman filter and one of its extended versions is introduced to the refined power series model for structural health monitoring.

  7. Linearly Refined Session Types

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pedro Baltazar

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Session types capture precise protocol structure in concurrent programming, but do not specify properties of the exchanged values beyond their basic type. Refinement types are a form of dependent types that can address this limitation, combining types with logical formulae that may refer to program values and can constrain types using arbitrary predicates. We present a pi calculus with assume and assert operations, typed using a session discipline that incorporates refinement formulae written in a fragment of Multiplicative Linear Logic. Our original combination of session and refinement types, together with the well established benefits of linearity, allows very fine-grained specifications of communication protocols in which refinement formulae are treated as logical resources rather than persistent truths.

  8. Refinement of hydrogen positions in (NH4)2SeO4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loose, A.; Mel'nik, G.; Zink, N.; Wozniak, K.; Dominiak, P.; Smirnov, L.S.; Pawlukojc, A.; Shuvalov, L.A.

    2005-01-01

    The crystal structure of ammonium selenate has been studied by means of single crystal X-ray and neutron diffraction with the purpose of the refinement of hydrogen positions. The refined hydrogen positions obtained by single crystal neutron diffraction show that N-H bond lengths form a regular tetrahedron in an ammonium ion. The single crystal X-ray diffraction data show that N-H bond lengths are shorter than those obtained by neutron diffraction and are not equal between themselves. Thus, the comparison of the results of X-ray and neutron diffraction allows one to suggest that the shorter N-H bond lengths by X-ray diffraction reflect the distribution of the electron charge density of ammonium ions within the (NH 4 ) 2 SeO 4 crystal lattice

  9. Refined functional relations for the elliptic SOS model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Galleas, W., E-mail: w.galleas@uu.nl [ARC Centre of Excellence for the Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010 (Australia)

    2013-02-21

    In this work we refine the method presented in Galleas (2012) [1] and obtain a novel kind of functional equation determining the partition function of the elliptic SOS model with domain wall boundaries. This functional relation arises from the dynamical Yang-Baxter relation and its solution is given in terms of multiple contour integrals.

  10. Refined functional relations for the elliptic SOS model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Galleas, W.

    2013-01-01

    In this work we refine the method presented in Galleas (2012) [1] and obtain a novel kind of functional equation determining the partition function of the elliptic SOS model with domain wall boundaries. This functional relation arises from the dynamical Yang–Baxter relation and its solution is given in terms of multiple contour integrals.

  11. Calculating corrections in F-theory from refined BPS invariants and backreacted geometries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poretschkin, Maximilian

    2015-07-01

    This thesis presents various corrections to F-theory compactifications which rely on the computation of refined Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) invariants and the analysis of backreacted geometries. Detailed information about rigid supersymmetric theories in five dimensions is contained in an index counting refined BPS invariants. These BPS states fall into representations of SU(2){sub L} x SU(2){sub R}, the little group in five dimensions, which has an induced action on the cohomology of the moduli space of stable pairs. In the first part of this thesis, we present the computation of refined BPS state multiplicities associated to M-theory compactifications on local Calabi-Yau manifolds whose base is given by a del Pezzo or half K3 surface. For geometries with a toric realization we use an algorithm which is based on the Weierstrass normal form of the mirror geometry. In addition we use the refined holomorphic anomaly equation and the gap condition at the conifold locus in the moduli space in order to perform the direct integration and to fix the holomorphic ambiguity. In a second approach, we use the refined Goettsche formula and the refined modular anomaly equation that govern the (refined) genus expansion of the free energy of the half K3 surface. By this procedure, we compute the refined BPS invariants of the half K3 from which the results of the remaining del Pezzo surfaces are obtained by flop transitions and blow-downs. These calculations also make use of the high symmetry of the del Pezzo surfaces whose homology lattice contains the root lattice of exceptional Lie algebras. In cases where both approaches are applicable, we successfully check the compatibility of these two methods. In the second part of this thesis, we apply the results obtained from the calculation of the refined invariants of the del Pezzo respectively the half K3 surfaces to count non-perturbative objects in F-theory. The first application is given by BPS states of the E

  12. A refined model for characterizing x-ray multilayers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oren, A.L.; Henke, B.L.

    1987-12-01

    The ability to quickly and accurately characterize arbitrary multilayers is very valuable for not only can we use the characterizations to predict the reflectivity of a multilayer for any soft x-ray wavelength, we also can generalize the results to apply to other multilayers of the same type. In addition, we can use the characterizations as a means of evaluating various sputtering environments and refining sputtering techniques to obtain better multilayers. In this report we have obtained improved characterizations for sample molybdenum-silicon and vanadium-silicon multilayers. However, we only examined five crystals overall, so the conclusions that we could draw about the structure of general multilayers is limited. Research involving many multilayers manufactured under the same sputtering conditions is clearly in order. In order to best understand multilayer structures it may be necessary to further refine our model, e.g., adopting a Gaussian form for the interface regions. With such improvements we can expect even better agreement with experimental values and continued concurrence with other characterization techniques. 18 refs., 30 figs., 7 tabs

  13. Nucleation mechanisms of refined alpha microstructure in beta titanium alloys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yufeng

    Due to a great combination of physical and mechanical properties, beta titanium alloys have become promising candidates in the field of chemical industry, aerospace and biomedical materials. The microstructure of beta titanium alloys is the governing factor that determines their properties and performances, especially the size scale, distribution and volume fraction of precipitate phase in parent phase matrix. Therefore in order to enhance the performance of beta titanium alloys, it is critical to obtain a thorough understanding of microstructural evolution in beta titanium alloys upon various thermal and/or mechanical processes. The present work is focusing on the study of nucleation mechanisms of refined alpha microstructure and super-refined alpha microstructure in beta titanium alloys in order to study the influence of instabilities within parent phase matrix on precipitates nucleation, including compositional instabilities and/or structural instabilities. The current study is primarily conducted in Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr (wt%, Ti-5553), a commercial material for aerospace application. Refined and super-refined precipitates microstructure in Ti-5553 are obtained under specific accurate temperature controlled heat treatments. The characteristics of either microstructure are investigated in details using various characterization techniques, such as SEM, TEM, STEM, HRSTEM and 3D atom probe to describe the features of microstructure in the aspect of morphology, distribution, structure and composition. Nucleation mechanisms of refined and super-refined precipitates are proposed in order to fully explain the features of different precipitates microstructure in Ti-5553. The necessary thermodynamic conditions and detailed process of phase transformations are introduced. In order to verify the reliability of proposed nucleation mechanisms, thermodynamic calculation and phase field modeling simulation are accomplished using the database of simple binary Ti-Mo system

  14. Marine sediment pore-water profiles of phosphate d18O using a refined micro-extraction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Goldhammer, Tobias; Max, Thomas; Brunner, Benjamin

    2011-01-01

    and small amounts of marine porewaters available for analysis. We obtained porewater profiles of Pi oxygen isotopes using a refined protocol based on the original micro-extraction designed by Colman (2002). This refined and customized method allows the conversion of ultra-low quantities (0.5 – 1 μmol...

  15. Preparation of Al-Ti-B grain refiner by SHS technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nikitin, V.I.; Wanqi, J.I.E.; Kandalova, E.G.; Makarenko, A.G.; Yong, L.

    2000-01-01

    Since the discovery of the grain refinement effect of aluminum by titanium, especially with the existence of B or C in 1950, grain refiners are widely accepted in industry for microstructure control of aluminum alloys. Research on this topic is to obtain the highest grain refinement efficiency with the lowest possible addition of master alloy. It is widely accepted that the morphology and size of TiAl 3 particles, which are known as heterogeneous nucleation centers, are important factors deterring the grain refinement efficiency. Fine TiAl 3 particles are favorable. The grain refinement process shows a heredity phenomenon, which means that structural information from initial materials transfers through a melt to the final product. It is important to find the connection between microstructural parameters of the master alloy and the final product. To improve the quality of Al-Ti-B master alloys for the use as a grain refiner, a new method based on SHS (self-propagating high-temperature synthesis) technology has been developed in Samara State Technical University to produce the master alloys. SHS, as a new method for preparation of materials, was first utilized by Merzhanov in 1967. This method uses the energy from highly exothermic reactions to sustain the chemical reaction in a combustion wave. The advantages of SHS include simplicity, low energy requirement, and higher product purity. Because SHS reactions can take place between elemental reactants, it is easy to control product composition. The purposes of this investigation were to fabricate an SHS Al-5%Ti-1%B master alloy, to analyze its structure and to test its grain refining performance

  16. Time evolution as refining, coarse graining and entangling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dittrich, Bianca; Steinhaus, Sebastian

    2014-01-01

    We argue that refining, coarse graining and entangling operators can be obtained from time evolution operators. This applies in particular to geometric theories, such as spin foams. We point out that this provides a construction principle for the physical vacuum in quantum gravity theories and more generally allows construction of a (cylindrically) consistent continuum limit of the theory. (paper)

  17. Time evolution as refining, coarse graining and entangling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dittrich, Bianca; Steinhaus, Sebastian

    2014-12-01

    We argue that refining, coarse graining and entangling operators can be obtained from time evolution operators. This applies in particular to geometric theories, such as spin foams. We point out that this provides a construction principle for the physical vacuum in quantum gravity theories and more generally allows construction of a (cylindrically) consistent continuum limit of the theory.

  18. 7 CFR 1737.41 - Procedure for obtaining approval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... RUS financing. (3) The proposed interim financing presents unacceptable loan security risks to RUS, or..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PRE-LOAN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES COMMON TO INSURED AND GUARANTEED TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOANS Interim Financing of Construction of Telephone Facilities § 1737.41 Procedure for obtaining...

  19. Commercial refining in the Mediterranean

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Packer, P.

    1999-01-01

    About 9% of the world's oil refining capacity is on the Mediterranean: some of the world's biggest and most advanced refineries are on Sicily and Sardinia. The Mediterranean refineries are important suppliers to southern Europe and N. Africa. The article discusses commercial refining in the Mediterranean under the headings of (i) historic development, (ii) product demand, (iii) refinery configurations, (iv) refined product trade, (v) financial performance and (vi) future outlook. Although some difficulties are foreseen, refining in the Mediterranean is likely to continue to be important well into the 21st century. (UK)

  20. Refining Nodes and Edges of State Machines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hallerstede, Stefan; Snook, Colin

    2011-01-01

    State machines are hierarchical automata that are widely used to structure complex behavioural specifications. We develop two notions of refinement of state machines, node refinement and edge refinement. We compare the two notions by means of examples and argue that, by adopting simple conventions...... refinement theory and UML-B state machine refinement influences the style of node refinement. Hence we propose a method with direct proof of state machine refinement avoiding the detour via Event-B that is needed by UML-B....

  1. Refinements in the Los Alamos model of the prompt fission neutron spectrum

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Madland, D.G., E-mail: dgm@lanl.gov; Kahler, A.C.

    2017-01-15

    This paper presents a number of refinements to the original Los Alamos model of the prompt fission neutron spectrum and average prompt neutron multiplicity as derived in 1982. The four refinements are due to new measurements of the spectrum and related fission observables many of which were not available in 1982. They are also due to a number of detailed studies and comparisons of the model with previous and present experimental results including not only the differential spectrum, but also integral cross sections measured in the field of the differential spectrum. The four refinements are (a) separate neutron contributions in binary fission, (b) departure from statistical equilibrium at scission, (c) fission-fragment nuclear level-density models, and (d) center-of-mass anisotropy. With these refinements, for the first time, good agreement has been obtained for both differential and integral measurements using the same Los Alamos model spectrum.

  2. Anomalies in the refinement of isoleucine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berntsen, Karen R. M.; Vriend, Gert

    2014-01-01

    The side-chain torsion angles of isoleucines in X-ray protein structures are a function of resolution, secondary structure and refinement software. Detailing the standard torsion angles used in refinement software can improve protein structure refinement. A study of isoleucines in protein structures solved using X-ray crystallography revealed a series of systematic trends for the two side-chain torsion angles χ 1 and χ 2 dependent on the resolution, secondary structure and refinement software used. The average torsion angles for the nine rotamers were similar in high-resolution structures solved using either the REFMAC, CNS or PHENIX software. However, at low resolution these programs often refine towards somewhat different χ 1 and χ 2 values. Small systematic differences can be observed between refinement software that uses molecular dynamics-type energy terms (for example CNS) and software that does not use these terms (for example REFMAC). Detailing the standard torsion angles used in refinement software can improve the refinement of protein structures. The target values in the molecular dynamics-type energy functions can also be improved

  3. Anomalies in the refinement of isoleucine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berntsen, Karen R. M.; Vriend, Gert, E-mail: gerrit.vriend@radboudumc.nl [Radboud University Medical Center, Geert Grooteplein 26-28, 6525 GA Nijmegen (Netherlands)

    2014-04-01

    The side-chain torsion angles of isoleucines in X-ray protein structures are a function of resolution, secondary structure and refinement software. Detailing the standard torsion angles used in refinement software can improve protein structure refinement. A study of isoleucines in protein structures solved using X-ray crystallography revealed a series of systematic trends for the two side-chain torsion angles χ{sub 1} and χ{sub 2} dependent on the resolution, secondary structure and refinement software used. The average torsion angles for the nine rotamers were similar in high-resolution structures solved using either the REFMAC, CNS or PHENIX software. However, at low resolution these programs often refine towards somewhat different χ{sub 1} and χ{sub 2} values. Small systematic differences can be observed between refinement software that uses molecular dynamics-type energy terms (for example CNS) and software that does not use these terms (for example REFMAC). Detailing the standard torsion angles used in refinement software can improve the refinement of protein structures. The target values in the molecular dynamics-type energy functions can also be improved.

  4. Grain refinement of zinc-aluminium alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaid, A.I.O.

    2006-01-01

    It is now well-established that the structure of the zinc-aluminum die casting alloys can be modified by the binary Al-Ti or the ternary Al-Ti-B master alloys. in this paper, grain refinement of zinc-aluminum alloys by rare earth materials is reviewed and discussed. The importance of grain refining of these alloys and parameters affecting it are presented and discussed. These include parameters related to the Zn-Al alloys cast, parameters related to the grain refining elements or alloys and parameters related to the process. The effect of addition of other alloying elements e.g. Zr either alone or in the presence of the main grain refiners Ti or Ti + B on the grain refining efficiency is also reviewed and discussed. Furthermore, based on the grain refinement and the parameters affecting it, a criterion for selection of the optimum grain refiner is suggested. Finally, the recent research work on the effect of grain refiners on the mechanical behaviour, impact strength, wear resistance, and fatigue life of these alloys are presented and discussed. (author)

  5. Rare earths refining by vacuum sublimation method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rytus, N.N.

    1983-01-01

    The process of rare earths refining by the sUblimation; method in high and superhigh oil-free vacuum, is investigated. The method is effective for rare earths obtaining and permits to prepare metal samples with a high value of electric resistance ratio γ=RsUb(298 K)/Rsub(4.2 K). The estimation of general purity is performed for Sm, Eu, Yb, Tm, Dy, Ho, Er and Se

  6. Influences of different degassing processes on refining effect and properties of 4004 Al alloy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Liping

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available In order to improve the plasticity of 4004 Al alloy and subsequently the productivity of 4004 Al foil, the research studied in detail the influence of the rotary impeller degassing process on the refining effect of 4004 Al alloy, in which the impacts of four major parameters: gas flow, rotational speed, refining time, and stewing time, on degassing rate of 4004 Al alloy was systematically studied by using an orthogonal experiment methodology. Results show that the rotational speed has the greatest impact on the degassing of 4004 Al alloy, followed by gas flow and refining time; stewing time has the least impact. The optimum purification parameters obtained by current orthogonal analysis were: rotor speed of 500 r·min-1, inert gas flow of 0.4 mL·h-1, refining time of 15 min, and stewing time of 6 min. Degassing rate using the optimum parameters reaches 68%. In addition, the comparison experiments among C2Cl6 refining, rotary impeller degassing, and combined treatment of C2Cl6 refining and rotary impeller degassing for 4004 Al alloy were performed. The experimental data indicated that the combined treatment of C2Cl6 refining and rotary impeller degassing has the best degassing effect. Degassing rate of C2Cl6 refining, rotary impeller degassing and combined refining treatment is 39%, 69.1% and 76.9%, respectively. The mechanical properties of the specimen refined by rotary impeller degassing were higher than those by C2Cl6 refining, but lower than those by combined refining treatment.

  7. Linkages between the markets for crude oil and the markets for refined products

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Didziulis, V.S.

    1990-01-01

    To understand the crude oil price determination process it is necessary to extend the analysis beyond the markets for petroleum. Crude oil prices are determined in two closely related markets: the markets for crude oil and the markets for refined products. An econometric-linear programming model was developed to capture the linkages between the markets for crude oil and refined products. In the LP refiners maximize profits given crude oil supplies, refining capacities, and prices of refined products. The objective function is profit maximization net of crude oil prices. The shadow price on crude oil gives the netback price. Refined product prices are obtained from the econometric models. The model covers the free world divided in five regions. The model is used to analyze the impacts on the markets of policies that affect crude oil supplies, the demands for refined products, and the refining industry. For each scenario analyzed the demand for crude oil is derived from the equilibrium conditions in the markets for products. The demand curve is confronted with a supply curve which maximizes revenues providing an equilibrium solution for both crude oil and product markets. The model also captures crude oil price differentials by quality. The results show that the demands for crude oil are different across regions due to the structure of the refining industries and the characteristics of the demands for refined products. Changes in the demands for products have a larger impact on the markets than changes in the refining industry. Since markets for refined products and crude oil are interrelated they can't be analyzed individually if an accurate and complete assessment of a policy is to be made. Changes in only one product market in one region affect the other product markets and the prices of crude oil

  8. Refining and petrochemicals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Constancio, Silva

    2006-07-01

    In 2004, refining margins showed a clear improvement that persisted throughout the first three quarters of 2005. This enabled oil companies to post significantly higher earnings for their refining activity in 2004 compared to 2003, with the results of the first half of 2005 confirming this trend. As for petrochemicals, despite a steady rise in the naphtha price, higher cash margins enabled a turnaround in 2004 as well as a clear improvement in oil company financial performance that should continue in 2005, judging by the net income figures reported for the first half-year. Despite this favorable business environment, capital expenditure in refining and petrochemicals remained at a low level, especially investment in new capacity, but a number of projects are being planned for the next five years. (author)

  9. Refining and petrochemicals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Constancio, Silva

    2006-01-01

    In 2004, refining margins showed a clear improvement that persisted throughout the first three quarters of 2005. This enabled oil companies to post significantly higher earnings for their refining activity in 2004 compared to 2003, with the results of the first half of 2005 confirming this trend. As for petrochemicals, despite a steady rise in the naphtha price, higher cash margins enabled a turnaround in 2004 as well as a clear improvement in oil company financial performance that should continue in 2005, judging by the net income figures reported for the first half-year. Despite this favorable business environment, capital expenditure in refining and petrochemicals remained at a low level, especially investment in new capacity, but a number of projects are being planned for the next five years. (author)

  10. Grain refinement of aluminum and its alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaid, A.I.O.

    2001-01-01

    Grain refinement of aluminum and its alloys by the binary Al-Ti and Ternary Al-Ti-B master alloys is reviewed and discussed. The importance of grain refining to the cast industry and the parameters affecting it are presented and discussed. These include parameters related to the cast, parameters related to the grain refining alloy and parameters related to the process. The different mechanisms, suggested in the literature for the process of grain refining are presented and discussed, from which it is found that although the mechanism of refining by the binary Al-Ti is well established the mechanism of grain refining by the ternary Al-Ti-B is still a controversial matter and some research work is still needed in this area. The effect of the addition of other alloying elements in the presence of the grain refiner on the grain refining efficiency is also reviewed and discussed. It is found that some elements e.g. V, Mo, C improves the grain refining efficiency, whereas other elements e.g. Cr, Zr, Ta poisons the grain refinement. Based on the parameters affecting the grain refinement and its mechanism, a criterion for selection of the optimum grain refiner is forwarded and discussed. (author)

  11. Editorial: Ethics approval: responsibilities of journal editors, authors ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Meaningful progress of medicine depends on research that must ultimately involve human subjects. Obtaining ethical approval therefore, especially in medical sciences, should be a moral reflex for researchers. This unfortunately is not the case, with numerous researchers bypassing the ethics approval procedure, or simply ...

  12. Indian refining industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singh, I.J.

    2002-01-01

    The author discusses the history of the Indian refining industry and ongoing developments under the headings: the present state; refinery configuration; Indian capabilities for refinery projects; and reforms in the refining industry. Tables lists India's petroleum refineries giving location and capacity; new refinery projects together with location and capacity; and expansion projects of Indian petroleum refineries. The Indian refinery industry has undergone substantial expansion as well as technological changes over the past years. There has been progressive technology upgrading, energy efficiency, better environmental control and improved capacity utilisation. Major reform processes have been set in motion by the government of India: converting the refining industry from a centrally controlled public sector dominated industry to a delicensed regime in a competitive market economy with the introduction of a liberal exploration policy; dismantling the administered price mechanism; and a 25 year hydrocarbon vision. (UK)

  13. Spanish Refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lores, F.R.

    2001-01-01

    An overview of petroleum refining in Spain is presented (by Repsol YPF) and some views on future trends are discussed. Spain depends heavily on imports. Sub-headings in the article cover: sources of crude imports, investments and logistics and marketing, -detailed data for each are shown diagrammatically. Tables show: (1) economic indicators (e.g. total GDP, vehicle numbers and inflation) for 1998-200; (2) crude oil imports for 1995-2000; (3) oil products balance for 1995-2000; (4) commodities demand, by product; (5) refining in Spain in terms of capacity per region; (6) outlets in Spain and other European countries in 2002 and (7) sales distribution channel by product

  14. Comparing Refinements for Failure and Bisimulation Semantics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eshuis, H.; Fokkinga, M.M.

    2002-01-01

    Refinement in bisimulation semantics is defined differently from refinement in failure semantics: in bisimulation semantics refinement is based on simulations between labelled transition systems, whereas in failure semantics refinement is based on inclusions between failure systems. There exist

  15. Crystal structure refinement with SHELXL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sheldrick, George M., E-mail: gsheldr@shelx.uni-ac.gwdg.de [Department of Structural Chemistry, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, Tammannstraße 4, Göttingen 37077 (Germany)

    2015-01-01

    New features added to the refinement program SHELXL since 2008 are described and explained. The improvements in the crystal structure refinement program SHELXL have been closely coupled with the development and increasing importance of the CIF (Crystallographic Information Framework) format for validating and archiving crystal structures. An important simplification is that now only one file in CIF format (for convenience, referred to simply as ‘a CIF’) containing embedded reflection data and SHELXL instructions is needed for a complete structure archive; the program SHREDCIF can be used to extract the .hkl and .ins files required for further refinement with SHELXL. Recent developments in SHELXL facilitate refinement against neutron diffraction data, the treatment of H atoms, the determination of absolute structure, the input of partial structure factors and the refinement of twinned and disordered structures. SHELXL is available free to academics for the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, and is particularly suitable for multiple-core processors.

  16. Production of biodiesel by transesterification of refined soybean oil ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study focused on the production of biodiesel via transesterification of refined soybean oil obtained locally. Sodium hydroxide was used as the alkali catalyst and methanol (as alcohol) was used in the transesterification process due to its low cost. The methanol-to-oil molar ratio was maintained at 6:1. The effect of ...

  17. Structural heredity of TiC and its influences on refinement behaviors of AlTiC master alloy

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    王振卿; 刘相法; 柳延辉; 张均燕; 于丽娜; 边秀房

    2003-01-01

    Heredity of microstructure in AlTiC master alloy, grain refiners, was analyzed. It is found that, for morphologies and distributions of TiC particles, there are visible heredity which originates from raw materials or processing methods of Al melt, and will ultimately be transferred to the solid state structure through the melt stage, and this phenomenon can cause hereditary influences on refinement: formation of chain-like TiC morphology results in rapid refinement fading behavior; distribution of TiC along grain boundaries greatly reduces refinement efficiency. Controlling of structural heredity through proper selections of raw materials and processing parameters is of great importance in obtaining ideal microstructures and improving refinement behaviors of AlTiC master alloys.

  18. Influence of boron addition on the grain refinement and mechanical properties of AZ91 Mg alloy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suresh, M.; Srinivasan, A.; Ravi, K.R.; Pillai, U.T.S.; Pai, B.C.

    2009-01-01

    This article reports the effect of boron addition on the grain refinement efficiency and mechanical properties of AZ91 magnesium alloy. The results show that the addition of boron in the form of Al-4B master alloy, significantly refines the grain size of AZ91 alloy. This refinement is due to the presence of AlB 2 particles, which act as potential nucleants for Mg grains. Improved mechanical properties are obtained with the addition of boron due to the finer grains.

  19. Operator Product Formulas in the Algebraic Approach of the Refined Topological Vertex

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cai Li-Qiang; Wang Li-Fang; Wu Ke; Yang Jie

    2013-01-01

    The refined topological vertex of Iqbal—Kozçaz—Vafa has been investigated from the viewpoint of the quantum algebra of type W 1+∞ by Awata, Feigin, and Shiraishi. They introduced the trivalent intertwining operator Φ which is normal ordered along with some prefactors. We manage to establish formulas from the infinite operator product of the vertex operators and the generalized ones to restore this prefactor, and obtain an explicit formula for the vertex realization of the topological vertex as well as the refined topological vertex

  20. A method for refining oil

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bruskin, Yu.A.; Gorokhov, V.V.; Kotler, L.D.; Kovalenko, N.F.; Spasskiy, Yu.B.; Titov, A.M.; Vlasenko, V.Ye.; Vytnov, V.A.

    1983-01-01

    In the method for refining oil through its distillation with the isolation of directly distilled gases and a benzine fraction (BS) with the use of a benzine fraction pyrolysis, in order to increase the output of the lower olefines and to reduce the energy expenditures, the distillation is conducted with the isolation of 10 to 40 percent of the benzine fraction from its potential content along with the directly distilled gases. The obtained mixture of the remaining part of the benzine fraction is absorbed at a pressure of 1.5 to 6 atmospheres with the feeding of the obtained saturated absorbent to pyrolysis and subsequent mixing of the obtained pyrolysis gas with the unabsorbed product and their joint gas division. As compared to the known method, the proposed method makes it possible to reduce the energy expenditures which is achieved through a reduction in the volume of irrigation in the tower, and to increase the output of the olefines through processing of the steam and gas mixture of the benzine and the directly distilled gases.

  1. Refinement of grain structure in 20 MnNiMo (SA508C) steel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sheng Zhongqi; Xiao Hong; Peng Feng; Zou Min

    1997-04-01

    The size of prior austenite grains and bainitic colonies of 20 MnNiMo (SA508C) steel (a reactor pressure vessel steel) after normal heat treatment is measured and its controlling factors are discussed. Results show that low aluminium content can induce serious mixed structure with fine and coarse grains in prior austenite. Fast cooling rate can promote refinement of bainitic colonies. Further refinement of grains can be obtained by inter-critical quenching. (5 figs., 1 tab.)

  2. Latin American oil markets and refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, N.D.; Obadia, C.

    1999-01-01

    This paper provides an overview of the oil markets and refining in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, and examines the production of crude oil in these countries. Details are given of Latin American refiners highlighting trends in crude distillation unit capacity, cracking to distillation ratios, and refining in the different countries. Latin American oil trade is discussed, and charts are presented illustrating crude production, oil consumption, crude refining capacity, cracking to distillation ratios, and oil imports and exports

  3. Refinement of Representation Theorems for Context-Free Languages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujioka, Kaoru

    In this paper, we obtain some refinement of representation theorems for context-free languages by using Dyck languages, insertion systems, strictly locally testable languages, and morphisms. For instance, we improved the Chomsky-Schützenberger representation theorem and show that each context-free language L can be represented in the form L = h (D ∩ R), where D is a Dyck language, R is a strictly 3-testable language, and h is a morphism. A similar representation for context-free languages can be obtained, using insertion systems of weight (3, 0) and strictly 4-testable languages.

  4. Relational Demonic Fuzzy Refinement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fairouz Tchier

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We use relational algebra to define a refinement fuzzy order called demonic fuzzy refinement and also the associated fuzzy operators which are fuzzy demonic join (⊔fuz, fuzzy demonic meet (⊓fuz, and fuzzy demonic composition (□fuz. Our definitions and properties are illustrated by some examples using mathematica software (fuzzy logic.

  5. Panorama 2012 - Refining 2030

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marion, Pierre; Saint-Antonin, Valerie

    2011-11-01

    The major uncertainty characterizing the global energy landscape impacts particularly on transport, which remains the virtually-exclusive bastion of the oil industry. The industry must therefore respond to increasing demand for mobility against a background marked by the emergence of alternatives to oil-based fuels and the need to reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHG). It is in this context that the 'Refining 2030' study conducted by IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN) forecasts what the global supply and demand balance for oil products could be, and highlights the type and geographical location of the refinery investment required. Our study shows that the bulk of the refining investment will be concentrated in the emerging countries (mainly those in Asia), whilst the areas historically strong in refining (Europe and North America) face reductions in capacity. In this context, the drastic reduction in the sulphur specification of bunker oil emerges as a structural issue for European refining, in the same way as increasingly restrictive regulation of refinery CO 2 emissions (quotas/taxation) and the persistent imbalance between gasoline and diesel fuels. (authors)

  6. Refining margins and prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baudouin, C.; Favennec, J.P.

    1997-01-01

    Refining margins throughout the world have remained low in 1996. In Europe, in spite of an improvement, particularly during the last few weeks, they are still not high enough to finance new investments. Although the demand for petroleum products is increasing, experts are still sceptical about any rapid recovery due to prevailing overcapacity and to continuing capacity growth. After a historical review of margins and an analysis of margins by regions, we analyse refining over-capacities in Europe and the unbalances between production and demand. Then we discuss the current situation concerning barriers to the rationalization, agreements between oil companies, and the consequences on the future of refining capacities and margins. (author)

  7. Rietveld refinement of Y2O3 using the pearson VII profile shape function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smrcok, L.

    1989-01-01

    Very good agreement between the observed and the calculated intensities was obtained using the Pearson VII profile shape function. The variable exponent m could be refined only in the damped iterations involving exclusively the profile parameters. Simultaneous refinement of the m with the positional and/or thermal parameters has led to large oscillations of the shifts of almost all parameters. Precision of the refined atomic coordinates is better than those from previously published Rietveld refinement and is comparable with single crystal results. The degree of serial correlation in residuals has been determined by the use of the Durbin-Watson d statistic. Normal probability plot based on δR i has been almost linear with the slope greater than one. The weighting scheme with w i = 1/y oi has proved to be good first approximation. (author)

  8. Neutron irradiation effects on grain-refined W and W-alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasegawa, A.; Fukuda, M.; Tanno, T.; Nogami, S.; Yabuuchi, K.; Tanaka, T.; Muroga, T.

    2014-10-01

    Microstructural data of neutron irradiated Tungsten (W) such as size and number density of voids and precipitates obtained by W up to 1.5dpa irradiation in the temperature range of 400-800degC were compiled quantitatively. Nucleation and growth process of these defects were clarified and a qualitative prediction of the damage structure development and hardening of W in fusion reactor environments were made taking into account the solid transmutation effects for the first time. To improve recrystallization behavior and low temperature embrittlement, grain refined-W alloys were fabricated by K- or La-doping method. Rhenium addition to the grain refining process was also examined to improve mechanical properties. Characterizations of unirradiated materials were performed. (author)

  9. Refinement Types for TypeScript

    OpenAIRE

    Vekris, Panagiotis; Cosman, Benjamin; Jhala, Ranjit

    2016-01-01

    We present Refined TypeScript (RSC), a lightweight refinement type system for TypeScript, that enables static verification of higher-order, imperative programs. We develop a formal core of RSC that delineates the interaction between refinement types and mutability. Next, we extend the core to account for the imperative and dynamic features of TypeScript. Finally, we evaluate RSC on a set of real world benchmarks, including parts of the Octane benchmarks, D3, Transducers, and the TypeScript co...

  10. Research of the technology of obtaining pure and disperse molybdenum disulfide from molybdenum concentrate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hovsepyan, A.H.; Israyelyan, S.M.

    2009-01-01

    The technology of obtaining pure and disperse molybdenum disulfide is worked out. The processes of refinement from the flotation reagents and deslimation by means of decantation, refinement of molybdenite concentrate from impurities by selective leaching methods are studied. The optimal regime of technological process is chosen

  11. Lung Segmentation Refinement based on Optimal Surface Finding Utilizing a Hybrid Desktop/Virtual Reality User Interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Shanhui; Sonka, Milan; Beichel, Reinhard R.

    2013-01-01

    Recently, the optimal surface finding (OSF) and layered optimal graph image segmentation of multiple objects and surfaces (LOGISMOS) approaches have been reported with applications to medical image segmentation tasks. While providing high levels of performance, these approaches may locally fail in the presence of pathology or other local challenges. Due to the image data variability, finding a suitable cost function that would be applicable to all image locations may not be feasible. This paper presents a new interactive refinement approach for correcting local segmentation errors in the automated OSF-based segmentation. A hybrid desktop/virtual reality user interface was developed for efficient interaction with the segmentations utilizing state-of-the-art stereoscopic visualization technology and advanced interaction techniques. The user interface allows a natural and interactive manipulation on 3-D surfaces. The approach was evaluated on 30 test cases from 18 CT lung datasets, which showed local segmentation errors after employing an automated OSF-based lung segmentation. The performed experiments exhibited significant increase in performance in terms of mean absolute surface distance errors (2.54 ± 0.75 mm prior to refinement vs. 1.11 ± 0.43 mm post-refinement, p ≪ 0.001). Speed of the interactions is one of the most important aspects leading to the acceptance or rejection of the approach by users expecting real-time interaction experience. The average algorithm computing time per refinement iteration was 150 ms, and the average total user interaction time required for reaching complete operator satisfaction per case was about 2 min. This time was mostly spent on human-controlled manipulation of the object to identify whether additional refinement was necessary and to approve the final segmentation result. The reported principle is generally applicable to segmentation problems beyond lung segmentation in CT scans as long as the underlying segmentation

  12. Lung segmentation refinement based on optimal surface finding utilizing a hybrid desktop/virtual reality user interface.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Shanhui; Sonka, Milan; Beichel, Reinhard R

    2013-01-01

    Recently, the optimal surface finding (OSF) and layered optimal graph image segmentation of multiple objects and surfaces (LOGISMOS) approaches have been reported with applications to medical image segmentation tasks. While providing high levels of performance, these approaches may locally fail in the presence of pathology or other local challenges. Due to the image data variability, finding a suitable cost function that would be applicable to all image locations may not be feasible. This paper presents a new interactive refinement approach for correcting local segmentation errors in the automated OSF-based segmentation. A hybrid desktop/virtual reality user interface was developed for efficient interaction with the segmentations utilizing state-of-the-art stereoscopic visualization technology and advanced interaction techniques. The user interface allows a natural and interactive manipulation of 3-D surfaces. The approach was evaluated on 30 test cases from 18 CT lung datasets, which showed local segmentation errors after employing an automated OSF-based lung segmentation. The performed experiments exhibited significant increase in performance in terms of mean absolute surface distance errors (2.54±0.75 mm prior to refinement vs. 1.11±0.43 mm post-refinement, p≪0.001). Speed of the interactions is one of the most important aspects leading to the acceptance or rejection of the approach by users expecting real-time interaction experience. The average algorithm computing time per refinement iteration was 150 ms, and the average total user interaction time required for reaching complete operator satisfaction was about 2 min per case. This time was mostly spent on human-controlled manipulation of the object to identify whether additional refinement was necessary and to approve the final segmentation result. The reported principle is generally applicable to segmentation problems beyond lung segmentation in CT scans as long as the underlying segmentation utilizes the

  13. Chromatography Analysis of Jatropha Curcas L Oil Raw and Refined

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chitue de Assuncao Nascimento, Juliano; Lafargue Perez, Francisco; Diaz Velazquez, Manuel

    2013-01-01

    The chromatography of gases is one of the most versatile methods utilized in the chemical laboratory, which permits the determinations of the percentages and types of fatty acids present in vegetable oils. The objective of this work was to carry out a comparative study of the composition of the fatty acids, of the mechanically extracted oil from the seed of the Jatropha curcas L plant in the raw and refined state, using the data obtained by gas chromatography. The fatty acids of the oil were determined as methylic esteres. The analyst was carried out in a gas chromatographer, with a detector of ionization by way of flame (FID), Agilent 7890A (Agilent, USA) coupled to HP Pentium 4 computer, with a data processing program. The temperatures of the injector and of the detector were 250 °C and 260 °C respectively. The data obtained chromatographically of the oil of Jatropha curcas L, raw and refined indicates that the refinery process did not vary the composition of the fatty acid, because there are no significant differences between them. Also, the results obtained by other investigators, showed that the predominant fatty acids obtained from the oil of the Jatropha curcas L were palmitic and stearic in the saturated fatty acids, and oleic and linoleic in the unsaturated fatty acids

  14. Chromatography analysis of Jatropha Curcas L oil raw and refined

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chitue de Assuncao Nascimento, Juliano; Lafargue Perez, Francisco; Diaz Velazquez, Manuel

    2013-01-01

    The chromatography of gases is one of the most versatile methods utilized in the chemical laboratory, which permits the determinations of the percentages and types of fatty acids present in vegetable oils. The objective of this work was to carry out a comparative study of the composition of the fatty acids, of the mechanically extracted oil from the seed of the Jatropha curcas L plant in the raw and refined state, using the data obtained by gas chromatography. The fatty acids of the oil were determined as methylic esteres. The analyst was carried out in a gas chromatographer, with a detector of ionization by way of flame (FID), Agilent 7890A (Agilent, USA) coupled to HP Pentium 4 computer, with a data processing program. The temperatures of the injector and of the detector were 250℃ and 260℃ respectively. The data obtained chromatographically of the oil of Jatropha curcas L, raw and refined indicates that the refinery process did not vary the composition of the fatty acid, because there are no significant differences between them. Also, the results obtained by other investigators, showed that the predominant fatty acids obtained from the oil of the Jatropha curcas L were palmitic and stearic in the saturated fatty acids, and oleic and linoleic in the unsaturated fatty acids

  15. Neutron Powder Diffraction and Constrained Refinement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pawley, G. S.; Mackenzie, Gordon A.; Dietrich, O. W.

    1977-01-01

    The first use of a new program, EDINP, is reported. This program allows the constrained refinement of molecules in a crystal structure with neutron diffraction powder data. The structures of p-C6F4Br2 and p-C6F4I2 are determined by packing considerations and then refined with EDINP. Refinement is...

  16. Refined geometric transition and qq-characters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimura, Taro; Mori, Hironori; Sugimoto, Yuji

    2018-01-01

    We show the refinement of the prescription for the geometric transition in the refined topological string theory and, as its application, discuss a possibility to describe qq-characters from the string theory point of view. Though the suggested way to operate the refined geometric transition has passed through several checks, it is additionally found in this paper that the presence of the preferred direction brings a nontrivial effect. We provide the modified formula involving this point. We then apply our prescription of the refined geometric transition to proposing the stringy description of doubly quantized Seiberg-Witten curves called qq-characters in certain cases.

  17. Innovating by developing new uses of already-approved drugs: trends in the marketing approval of supplemental indications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DiMasi, Joseph A

    2013-06-01

    Much of the literature on trends and factors affecting biopharmaceutical innovation has focused overwhelmingly on the development and approval of never-before approved drugs and biologics. Little attention has been paid to new uses for already-approved compounds, which can be an important form of innovation. This paper aimed to determine and analyze recent trends in the number and type of new or modified US indication approvals for drugs and biologics. We also examine regulatory approval-phase times for new-use efficacy supplements and compare them to approval-phase times for original-use approvals over the same period. We developed a data set of efficacy supplements approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1998 to 2011 that includes information on the type, approval-phase time (time from submission to the FDA of an application for marketing approval to approval of the application), and FDA therapeutic-significance rating for the approved application, which we obtained from an FDA Web site. This data set was merged with a Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) data set of US new drug and biologics approvals. We developed descriptive statistics on trends in the number and type of new-use efficacy supplements, on US regulatory approval-phase times for the supplements, and on original new drug and biologics approvals over the study period and for the time from original- to new-use approval. The total number of new-use efficacy-supplement approvals did not exhibit a marked trend, but the number of new pediatric-indication approvals increased substantially. Approval-phase times for new-use supplements varied by therapeutic class and FDA therapeutic-significance rating. Mean approval-phase times were highest for central nervous system compounds (13.8 months) and lowest for antineoplastics (8.9 months). The mean time from original to supplement approval was substantially longer for new pediatric indications than for other new uses. Mean

  18. Effect of addition of tantalum and zirconium on the mechanical behavior of aluminum grain refined by Ti+ B

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaid, A.I.O.

    2003-01-01

    Aluminum and its alloys normally solidify in a columnar structure with coarse grains. Therefore, they are normally grain refined by adding either titanium or titanium + boron to their melts to obtain finer grain size and better surface quality. Other elements may be added beside the grain refiners to enhance their grain refinement efficiency and improve the mechanical behavior. Some elements were found to improve the grain refining efficiency of the master alloys e.g., vanadium, molybdenum, while others were found to deteriorate the grain refining efficiency e.g., zirconium and tantalum. The literature reveals that in general, only one element is added in the presence of the binary AI-Ti or the ternary AI-Ti-B grain refining master alloy. It is, therefore, anticipated that the addition of Ta and Zr may have different effect when added together from that if each element is added alone. This formed the main objective of this paper. In this paper, the effect of addition of either Zr, Ta or both of them together, with a percentage of 0.1 %wt each, on the grain size, hardness and mechanical behavior of AI and AI grain refined by Ti+B is investigated. It was found that adding Zr or Ta to commercially pure aluminum resulted in grain refinement of its structure and resulted in slight improvement of its hardness. However, a pronounced improvement was obtained in its mechanical strength and formability. On the other hand, addition of either Zr or Ta to Al grain refined by Ti+B resulted in poisoning effect i.e. reducing the grain refining efficiency of the AI- Ti-B master alloy. Practically, addition of either Zr or Ta has no effect on its hardness but resulted in a pronounced improvement of its mechanical strength. Finally, the addition of Zr + Ta to commercially pure aluminum or to aluminum grain refined by Ti+B resulted in reduction of grain size, little improvement in hardness and pronounced improvement in mechanical strength than when each element was added alone

  19. Dynamic quantum crystallography: lattice-dynamical models refined against diffraction data. II. Applications to L-alanine, naphthalene and xylitol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoser, Anna A; Madsen, Anders Ø

    2017-03-01

    In the first paper of this series [Hoser & Madsen (2016). Acta Cryst. A72, 206-214], a new approach was introduced which enables the refinement of frequencies of normal modes obtained from ab initio periodic computations against single-crystal diffraction data. In this contribution, the performance of this approach is tested by refinement against data in the temperature range from 23 to 205 K on the molecular crystals of L-alanine, naphthalene and xylitol. The models, which are lattice-dynamical models derived at the Γ point of the Brillouin zone, are able to describe the atomic vibrations of L-alanine and naphthalene to a level where the residual densities are similar to those obtained from the independent atom model. For the more flexible molecule xylitol, larger deviations are found. Hydrogen ADPs (anisotropic displacement parameters) derived from the models are in similar or better agreement with neutron diffraction results than ADPs obtained by other procedures. The heat capacity calculated after normal mode refinement for naphthalene is in reasonable agreement with the heat capacity obtained from calorimetric measurements (to less than 1 cal mol -1  K -1 below 300 K), with deviations at higher temperatures indicating anharmonicity. Standard uncertainties and correlation of the refined parameters have been derived based on a Monte Carlo procedure. The uncertainties are quite small and probably underestimated.

  20. On Modal Refinement and Consistency

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nyman, Ulrik; Larsen, Kim Guldstrand; Wasowski, Andrzej

    2007-01-01

    Almost 20 years after the original conception, we revisit several fundamental question about modal transition systems. First, we demonstrate the incompleteness of the standard modal refinement using a counterexample due to Hüttel. Deciding any refinement, complete with respect to the standard...

  1. Refining - Panorama 2008

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    Investment rallied in 2007, and many distillation and conversion projects likely to reach the industrial stage were announced. With economic growth sustained in 2006 and still pronounced in 2007, oil demand remained strong - especially in emerging countries - and refining margins stayed high. Despite these favorable business conditions, tensions persisted in the refining sector, which has fallen far behind in terms of investing in refinery capacity. It will take renewed efforts over a long period to catch up. Looking at recent events that have affected the economy in many countries (e.g. the sub-prime crisis), prudence remains advisable

  2. Effect of B/Ti mass ratio on grain refining of low-titanium aluminum produced by electrolysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Mingxing; Wang Sanjun; Liu Zhiyong; Liu Zhongxia; Song Tianfu; Zuo Xiurong

    2006-01-01

    The effect of B/Ti mass ratio on grain refining of the low-titanium aluminum produced by electrolysis was investigated by adding AlB master alloy to the melt of the low-titanium aluminum. The results show that the addition of titanium by electrolysis is an effective way of grain refining of aluminum, and addition of boron to the melt of the low-titanium aluminum can further increase the grain refining efficiency. And the best grain refining efficiency is obtained when the B/Ti mass ratio is 1:10. However, when the B/Ti mass ratio is 1:2.22 (the stoichiometric value for TiB 2 ), the grain refining efficiency vanishes almost completely. It means that all of the solute titanium atoms in the melt of the low-titanium aluminum react with boron atoms that come from AlB master alloy to form TiB 2 particles, and TiB 2 particles have not grain refining ability. The grain refining efficiency seems to increase with addition of more boron to the melt after the B/Ti mass ratio exceeds 1:2.22. But the grain refining efficiency is very poor, and similar to that of pure Al refined by AlB master alloy. It further shows that TiB 2 particles do not participate in grain refining, and that the excess boron atoms in the melt also cannot turn TiB 2 particles into the effective nuclei for aluminum as the solute titanium atoms do

  3. Refinement by interface instantiation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hallerstede, Stefan; Hoang, Thai Son

    2012-01-01

    be easily refined. Our first contribution hence is a proposal for a new construct called interface that encapsulates the external variables, along with a mechanism for interface instantiation. Using the new construct and mechanism, external variables can be refined consistently. Our second contribution...... is an approach for verifying the correctness of Event-B extensions using the supporting Rodin tool. We illustrate our approach by proving the correctness of interface instantiation....

  4. Grain refinement of Ca addition in a twin-roll-cast Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jiang Bin, E-mail: jiangbinrong@cqu.edu.cn [National Engineering Research Center for Magnesium Alloys, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030 (China); College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030 (China); Liu Wenjun [College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030 (China); Qiu Dong; Zhang Mingxing [Division of Materials, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia); Pan Fusheng [National Engineering Research Center for Magnesium Alloys, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030 (China)

    2012-04-16

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Grain refinement of Ca addition in a twin-roll-cast Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy was investigated. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Addition of 0.08 wt% Ca into Mg melts can significantly reduce the grain size to 30 {mu}m from 100 {mu}m. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Al{sub 2}Ca intermetallic particles have high potency to act as heterogeneous nucleation sites for {alpha}-Mg. - Abstract: Addition of 0.08 wt% Ca into AZ31 melts significantly reduces the average grain size of thin strips produced by twin-roll-cast to 30 {mu}m from 100 {mu}m. Like Zr, due to the high chemical activity, the Ca added into the melts reacts with Al and forms Al{sub 2}Ca intermetallic compound. X-ray diffraction result approves the existence of Al{sub 2}Ca in the thin strips, which formed in the melts. Crystallographic examination of relationship between Al{sub 2}Ca and Mg using the edge-to-edge matching model indicates that Al{sub 2}Ca particles are effective inoculants for heterogeneous nucleation of Mg. It is considered that Al{sub 2}Ca is a potential and effective grain refiner for Mg alloys and the grain refinement through addition of Ca in the AZ31 alloy is attributed to the inoculation effect of Al{sub 2}Ca particles formed in the melts.

  5. Penetuan Bilangan Iodin pada Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil (HPKO) dan Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Kernel Oil (RBDPKO)

    OpenAIRE

    Sitompul, Monica Angelina

    2015-01-01

    Have been conducted Determination of Iodin Value by method titration to some Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil (HPKO) and Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Kernel Oil (RBDPKO). The result of analysis obtained the Iodin Value in Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil (A) = 0,16 gr I2/100gr, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil (B) = 0,20 gr I2/100gr, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil (C) = 0,24 gr I2/100gr. And in Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Kernel Oil (A) = 17,51 gr I2/100gr, Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Kernel ...

  6. The relationship between viscosity and refinement efficiency of pure aluminum by Al-Ti-B refiner

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yu Lina [Key Laboratory of Liquid Structure and Heredity of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, 73 Jingshi Road, Jinan 250061 (China); Liu Xiangfa [Key Laboratory of Liquid Structure and Heredity of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, 73 Jingshi Road, Jinan 250061 (China)]. E-mail: xfliu@sdu.edu.cn

    2006-11-30

    The relationship between viscosity and refinement efficiency of pure aluminum with the addition of Al-Ti-B master alloy was studied in this paper. The experimental results show that when the grain size of solidified sample is finer the viscosity of the melt is higher after the addition of different Al-Ti-B master alloys. This indicates that viscosity can be used to approximately estimate the refinement efficiency of Al-Ti-B refiners in production to a certain extent. The main reason was also discussed in this paper by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiment.

  7. Relational Demonic Fuzzy Refinement

    OpenAIRE

    Tchier, Fairouz

    2014-01-01

    We use relational algebra to define a refinement fuzzy order called demonic fuzzy refinement and also the associated fuzzy operators which are fuzzy demonic join $({\\bigsqcup }_{\\mathrm{\\text{f}}\\mathrm{\\text{u}}\\mathrm{\\text{z}}})$ , fuzzy demonic meet $({\\sqcap }_{\\mathrm{\\text{f}}\\mathrm{\\text{u}}\\mathrm{\\text{z}}})$ , and fuzzy demonic composition $({\\square }_{\\mathrm{\\text{f}}\\mathrm{\\text{u}}\\mathrm{\\text{z}}})$ . Our definitions and properties are illustrated by some examples using ma...

  8. Crystal structure refinement of α-Si3N4 using synchrotron radiation powder diffraction data: unbiased refinement strategy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toraya, H.

    2000-01-01

    The crystal structure of α-silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) was refined by the Rietveld method using synchrotron radiation powder diffraction data (wavelength = 1.2 A) collected at station BL-4B2 in the photon factory. A refinement procedure that adopted a new weight function, w = 1/Y o e (Y o is the observed profile intensity and e ≅ 2), for the least-squares fitting [Toraya (1998). J. Appl. Cryst. 31, 333-343] was studied. The most reasonable structural parameters were obtained with e = 1.7. Crystal data of α-Si 3 N 4 : trigonal, P31c, a = 7.75193 (3), c = 5.61949 (4) A, V = 292.447 (3) A 3 , Z = 4; R p = 5.08, R wp = 6.50, R B = 3.36, R F = 2.26%. The following five factors are considered equally important for deriving accurate structural parameters from powder diffraction data: (i) sufficiently large sin θ/λ range of >0.8 A -1 ; (ii) adequate counting statistics; (iii) correct profile model; (iv) proper weighting on observations to give a uniform distribution of the mean weighted squared residuals; (v) high-angular-resolution powder diffraction data. (orig.)

  9. Spatially adaptive hp refinement approach for PN neutron transport equation using spectral element method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nahavandi, N.; Minuchehr, A.; Zolfaghari, A.; Abbasi, M.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Powerful hp-SEM refinement approach for P N neutron transport equation has been presented. • The method provides great geometrical flexibility and lower computational cost. • There is a capability of using arbitrary high order and non uniform meshes. • Both posteriori and priori local error estimation approaches have been employed. • High accurate results are compared against other common adaptive and uniform grids. - Abstract: In this work we presented the adaptive hp-SEM approach which is obtained from the incorporation of Spectral Element Method (SEM) and adaptive hp refinement. The SEM nodal discretization and hp adaptive grid-refinement for even-parity Boltzmann neutron transport equation creates powerful grid refinement approach with high accuracy solutions. In this regard a computer code has been developed to solve multi-group neutron transport equation in one-dimensional geometry using even-parity transport theory. The spatial dependence of flux has been developed via SEM method with Lobatto orthogonal polynomial. Two commonly error estimation approaches, the posteriori and the priori has been implemented. The incorporation of SEM nodal discretization method and adaptive hp grid refinement leads to high accurate solutions. Coarser meshes efficiency and significant reduction of computer program runtime in comparison with other common refining methods and uniform meshing approaches is tested along several well-known transport benchmarks

  10. Refinement of nuclear safety education reinforcing technical succession

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yokobori, Seiichi

    2008-01-01

    In April 2008, Musashi Institute of Technology established another faculty, the Faculty of Nuclear Safety Engineering, to educate students for nuclear engineering to meet the demands of personnel for nuclear business. At this new faculty, students mainly obtain professional knowledge and skills related to nuclear safety issues. This article described refinement of nuclear safety education by reinforcing technical succession topics, such as Rankine cycle, fission, two-phase flow, defense in depth in safety. LOCA/ECCS, seismic effects, reactor maintenance. (T. Tanaka)

  11. 75 FR 63445 - Vessel Monitoring Systems; Approved Mobile Transmitting Units and Communications Service...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-15

    ... Monitoring Systems; Approved Mobile Transmitting Units and Communications Service Providers for Use in the... features of the VMS. ADDRESSES: To obtain copies of the list of NOAA-approved VMS mobile transmitting units and NOAA-approved VMS communications service providers, please contact the VMS Support Center at...

  12. Panorama 2007: Refining and Petrochemicals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Silva, C.

    2007-01-01

    The year 2005 saw a new improvement in refining margins that continued during the first three quarters of 2006. The restoration of margins in the last three years has allowed the refining sector to regain its profitability. In this context, the oil companies reported earnings for fiscal year 2005 that were up significantly compared to 2004, and the figures for the first half-year 2006 confirm this trend. Despite this favorable business environment, investments only saw a minimal increase in 2005 and the improvement expected for 2006 should remain fairly limited. Looking to 2010-2015, it would appear that the planned investment projects with the highest probability of reaching completion will be barely adequate to cover the increase in demand. Refining sector should continue to find itself under pressure. As for petrochemicals, despite a steady up-trend in the naphtha price, the restoration of margins consolidated a comeback that started in 2005. All in all, capital expenditure remained fairly low in both the refining and petrochemicals sectors, but many projects are planned for the next ten years. (author)

  13. The use of Fourier reverse transforms in crystallographic phase refinement

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ringrose, Sharon [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

    1997-10-08

    Often a crystallographer obtains an electron density map which shows only part of the structure. In such cases, the phasing of the trial model is poor enough that the electron density map may show peaks in some of the atomic positions, but other atomic positions are not visible. There may also be extraneous peaks present which are not due to atomic positions. A method for determination of crystal structures that have resisted solution through normal crystallographic methods has been developed. PHASER is a series of FORTRAN programs which aids in the structure solution of poorly phased electron density maps by refining the crystallographic phases. It facilitates the refinement of such poorly phased electron density maps for difficult structures which might otherwise not be solvable. The trial model, which serves as the starting point for the phase refinement, may be acquired by several routes such as direct methods or Patterson methods. Modifications are made to the reverse transform process based on several assumptions. First, the starting electron density map is modified based on the fact that physically the electron density map must be non-negative at all points. In practice a small positive cutoff is used. A reverse Fourier transform is computed based on the modified electron density map. Secondly, the authors assume that a better electron density map will result by using the observed magnitudes of the structure factors combined with the phases calculated in the reverse transform. After convergence has been reached, more atomic positions and less extraneous peaks are observed in the refined electron density map. The starting model need not be very large to achieve success with PHASER; successful phase refinement has been achieved with a starting model that consists of only 5% of the total scattering power of the full molecule. The second part of the thesis discusses three crystal structure determinations.

  14. Refining margins: recent trends

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baudoin, C.; Favennec, J.P.

    1999-01-01

    Despite a business environment that was globally mediocre due primarily to the Asian crisis and to a mild winter in the northern hemisphere, the signs of improvement noted in the refining activity in 1996 were borne out in 1997. But the situation is not yet satisfactory in this sector: the low return on invested capital and the financing of environmental protection expenditure are giving cause for concern. In 1998, the drop in crude oil prices and the concomitant fall in petroleum product prices was ultimately rather favorable to margins. Two elements tended to put a damper on this relative optimism. First of all, margins continue to be extremely volatile and, secondly, the worsening of the economic and financial crisis observed during the summer made for a sharp decline in margins in all geographic regions, especially Asia. Since the beginning of 1999, refining margins are weak and utilization rates of refining capacities have decreased. (authors)

  15. Summary of uranium refining and conversion pilot plant at Ningyo-toge works

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iwata, Ichiro

    1981-01-01

    In the Ningyo-toge works, Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., the construction of the uranium refining and conversion pilot plant was completed, and the operation will be started after the various tests based on the related laws. As for the uranium refining in Japan, the PNC process by wet refining method has been developed since 1958. The history of the development is described. It was decided to construct the refining and conversion pilot plant with 200 t uranium/year capacity as the comprehensive result of the development. This is the amount sufficient to supply UF 6 to the uranium enrichment pilot plant in Ningyo-toge. The building for the refining and conversion pilot plant is a three-story ferro-concrete building with the total floor area of about 13,000 m 2 . The raw materials are the uranium ore produced in Ningyo-toge and the yellow cakes from abroad. Uranyl sulfate solution is obtained by solvent extraction using an extraction tower or a mixer-settler. The following processes are electrolytic reduction, precipitation of uranium tetrafluoride, filtration, drying, dehydration and UF 6 conversion. The fluorine for UF 6 conversion is produced by the facility in the plant. The operation of the pilot plant will be started in the latter half of the fiscal year 1981, the batch operation is carrried out in 1982, and the continuous operation from 1983. (Kako, I.)

  16. Panorama 2009 - refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    For oil companies to invest in new refining and conversion capacity, favorable conditions over time are required. In other words, refining margins must remain high and demand sustained over a long period. That was the situation prevailing before the onset of the financial crisis in the second half of 2008. The economic conjuncture has taken a substantial turn for the worse since then and the forecasts for 2009 do not look bright. Oil demand is expected to decrease in the OECD countries and to grow much more slowly in the emerging countries. It is anticipated that refining margins will fall in 2009 - in 2008, they slipped significantly in the United States - as a result of increasingly sluggish demand, especially for light products. The next few months will probably be unfavorable to investment. In addition to a gloomy business outlook, there may also be a problem of access to sources of financing. As for investment projects, a mainstream trend has emerged in the last few years: a shift away from the regions that have historically been most active (the OECD countries) towards certain emerging countries, mostly in Asia or the Middle East. The new conjuncture will probably not change this trend

  17. Effect of oil refining processes on 14 C-tetrachlorvinphos residues in soya bean oil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farghaly, M.; Zayed, S.M.A.D.

    1986-01-01

    Crude soya bean oil extracted from grains treated with 14 C-tetrachlorvinphos and stored for 30 weeks was subjected to different refining processes. The effect of commercial refining processes, namely: alkali treatment, bleaching, winterization and deodorization on the nature and magnitude of the originally present residues was investigated. A high percentage (52%) of the residues was eliminated during alkali neutralization. No potentially toxic materials were detected among the identified degradation products. The obtained data showed that the ultimate degradation products were dimethyl phosphate and mono methyl phosphate.2 tab.,2 scheme

  18. Investigation on grain refinement and precipitation strengthening applied in high speed wire rod containing vanadium

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu, Da-yong; Xiao, Fu-ren, E-mail: frxiao@ysu.edu.cn; Wang, Bin; Liu, Jia-ling; Liao, Bo, E-mail: cyddjyjs@263.net

    2014-01-13

    To obtain necessary information for the simulation of high speed wire production process, the effect of grain refinement and precipitation strengthening on two high speed wire rod steels with different vanadium and nitrogen contents was investigated by continuous cooling transformation (CCT) characteristics. CCT curves were constructed by the dilatometer test and microscopic observation. Results showed that the formation of intra-granular ferrite (IGF) could refine grain remarkably and accelerate the ferrite transformation. Schedules for high speed wire production process focused on the effect of cooling rate. Ferrite grain was refined by increasing cooling rate and the formation of IGF. The microhardness calculation revealed that the steels were strengthened mostly by a combined effect of grain refinement and precipitation hardening. Degenerated pearlite was observed at lower transformation temperature and the fracture morphology changed from cementite lamellar to nanoscale cementite particle with increasing cooling rate. Based on the analysis above, an optimal schedule was applied and the microstructure and microhardness were improved.

  19. Refinement of protein termini in template-based modeling using conformational space annealing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Hahnbeom; Ko, Junsu; Joo, Keehyoung; Lee, Julian; Seok, Chaok; Lee, Jooyoung

    2011-09-01

    The rapid increase in the number of experimentally determined protein structures in recent years enables us to obtain more reliable protein tertiary structure models than ever by template-based modeling. However, refinement of template-based models beyond the limit available from the best templates is still needed for understanding protein function in atomic detail. In this work, we develop a new method for protein terminus modeling that can be applied to refinement of models with unreliable terminus structures. The energy function for terminus modeling consists of both physics-based and knowledge-based potential terms with carefully optimized relative weights. Effective sampling of both the framework and terminus is performed using the conformational space annealing technique. This method has been tested on a set of termini derived from a nonredundant structure database and two sets of termini from the CASP8 targets. The performance of the terminus modeling method is significantly improved over our previous method that does not employ terminus refinement. It is also comparable or superior to the best server methods tested in CASP8. The success of the current approach suggests that similar strategy may be applied to other types of refinement problems such as loop modeling or secondary structure rearrangement. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  20. Obtainment of lithium metal by electrolysis of molten salts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Silva Costa, M.A.Z. da.

    1988-04-01

    The obtainment metallic lithium through KCL + LiCl, using a stainless steel cathode and a graphite anode is studied. The applications of lithium on nuclear energy, aerospatial program, metalurgy and as refining and degassing agent are also presented. The purification of lithium is still mentioned. (C.G.C.) [pt

  1. Local-field refinement of neutron scattering lengths

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sears, V.F.

    1985-01-01

    We examine the way in which local field effects in the neutron refractive index affect the values of coherent scattering lengths determined by various kinds of neutron optical measurements. We find that under typical experimental conditions these effects are negligible for interferometry measurements but that they are significant for gravity refractometry measurements, producing changes in the effective scattering length of as much as two or three standard deviations in some cases. Refined values of the scattering length are obtained for the thirteen elements for which data are presently available. The special role of local field effects in neutron transmission is also discussed. (orig.)

  2. Local-field refinement of neutron scattering lengths

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sears, V F

    1985-06-01

    We examine the way in which local field effects in the neutron refractive index affect the values of coherent scattering lengths determined by various kinds of neutron optical measurements. We find that under typical experimental conditions these effects are negligible for interferometry measurements but that they are significant for gravity refractometry measurements, producing changes in the effective scattering length of as much as two or three standard deviations in some cases. Refined values of the scattering length are obtained for the thirteen elements for which data are presently available. The special role of local field effects in neutron transmission is also discussed.

  3. Romanian refining industry assesses restructuring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanasescu, D.G.

    1991-01-01

    The Romanian crude oil refining industry, as all the other economic sectors, faces the problems accompanying the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. At present, all refineries have registered as joint-stock companies and all are coordinated and assisted by Rafirom S.A., from both a legal and a production point of view. Rafirom S.A. is a joint-stock company that holds shares in refineries and other stock companies with activities related to oil refining. Such activities include technological research, development, design, transportation, storage, and domestic and foreign marketing. This article outlines the market forces that are expected to: drive rationalization and restructuring of refining operations and define the targets toward which the reconfigured refineries should strive

  4. Setting up a randomized clinical trial in the UK: approvals and process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greene, Louise Eleanor; Bearn, David R

    2013-06-01

    Randomized clinical trials are considered the 'gold standard' in primary research for healthcare interventions. However, they can be expensive and time-consuming to set up and require many approvals to be in place before they can begin. This paper outlines how to determine what approvals are required for a trial, the background of each approval and the process for obtaining them.

  5. Action Refinement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gorrieri, R.; Rensink, Arend; Bergstra, J.A.; Ponse, A.; Smolka, S.A.

    2001-01-01

    In this chapter, we give a comprehensive overview of the research results in the field of action refinement during the past 12 years. The different approaches that have been followed are outlined in detail and contrasted to each other in a uniform framework. We use two running examples to discuss

  6. Development of an efficient grain refiner for Al-7Si alloy and its modification with strontium

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kori, S.A.; Murty, B.S.; Chakraborty, M. [Indian Inst. of Technol., Kharagpur (India). Dept. of Metall. and Mater. Eng.

    2000-05-15

    The grain refining response of Al and Al-7Si alloy has been studied with various Al-Ti, Al-B and Al-Ti-B master alloys at different addition levels. The results show that Al-B and B rich Al-Ti-B master alloys cannot grain refine Al, while they are efficient grain refiners to Al-7Si alloy. The level of grain refinement saturates after 0.03% of Ti or B for most of the master alloys studied both at short and long holding times. The grain refining efficiency of some elements other than Ti and B on Al-7Si alloy has also been studied. Interestingly, all the elements studied (B, Cr, Fe, Mg, Ni, Ti and Zr) have resulted in some grain refinement of Al-7Si alloy at short holding time and have shown fading/poisoning on long holding, which increased in the order of B (no poisoning), Ti, Cr, Ni, Fe, Mg, Zr. Sr (0.02%) has been found to provide complete modification of the eutectic in Al-7Si alloy within 2 min, which is not lost even after long holding up to 120 min. Significant improvements in the mechanical properties have been obtained by a combination of grain refinement and modification to an extent that was not possible by either of them alone. (orig.)

  7. Refinement by Rietveld method of a rolled sheet Al-Mg-Si 6063 alloy with preferential orientation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carrio, J.A.G.; Hattori, C.S.; Miranda, L.F.; Domingues Junior, N.I.; Lima, N.B.; Couto, A.A.; Aguiar, A.A.

    2010-01-01

    The Rietveld refinement of a sample with preferential orientation was accomplished using data of X ray diffraction of a rolled 6063 aluminum alloy. The refinement of the preferential orientation by spherical harmonic was accomplished using a symmetry of sample mmm (rolling) until the order of 8 and was compared with experimental pole figures. The four pole figures presented indicate a sharp texture of the planes (111), (200), (220) and (311). The calculated pole figures obtained from the refinement of the X ray diffraction spectrum can incur in mistakes of preferential orientation. This happens because the measure is restricted to the planes parallel to the surface without inference to the symmetry of the sample. (author)

  8. Optimization of Refining Craft for Vegetable Insulating Oil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Zhu-Jun; Hu, Ting; Cheng, Lin; Tian, Kai; Wang, Xuan; Yang, Jun; Kong, Hai-Yang; Fang, Fu-Xin; Qian, Hang; Fu, Guang-Pan

    2016-05-01

    Vegetable insulating oil because of its environmental friendliness are considered as ideal material instead of mineral oil used for the insulation and the cooling of the transformer. The main steps of traditional refining process included alkali refining, bleaching and distillation. This kind of refining process used in small doses of insulating oil refining can get satisfactory effect, but can't be applied to the large capacity reaction kettle. This paper using rapeseed oil as crude oil, and the refining process has been optimized for large capacity reaction kettle. The optimized refining process increases the acid degumming process. The alkali compound adds the sodium silicate composition in the alkali refining process, and the ratio of each component is optimized. Add the amount of activated clay and activated carbon according to 10:1 proportion in the de-colorization process, which can effectively reduce the oil acid value and dielectric loss. Using vacuum pumping gas instead of distillation process can further reduce the acid value. Compared some part of the performance parameters of refined oil products with mineral insulating oil, the dielectric loss of vegetable insulating oil is still high and some measures are needed to take to further optimize in the future.

  9. Effects of combined additions of Sr and AlTiB grain refiners in hypoeutectic Al-Si foundry alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu, L.; Dahle, A.K.

    2006-01-01

    Strontium is the most widely used and a very effective element for modifying the morphology of eutectic silicon, while Ti and B are commonly present in the commercial grain refiners used for Al-Si alloys. Systematic studies on the effects of combined additions of Sr and different AlTiB grain refiners on the Al + Si eutectic and primary aluminium solidification have been performed. While slight coarsening of both eutectic Si and primary aluminium grains occurs during holding, no obvious interactions are observed between Sr and AlTiB grain refiners when the addition level of grain refiners is low. As a result, a well-modified and grain refined structure was obtained. However, strong negative interactions between Sr and Al1.5Ti1.5B were observed as the addition level of the grain refiner increases. It was found that these interactions have a much more profound impact on the eutectic solidification than the primary Al solidification. The melt treated with combined additions of Sr and Al1.5Ti1.5B still shows good grain refinement efficiency even after losing its modification completely. The mechanism responsible for such negative interactions is further discussed

  10. Effects of combined additions of Sr and AlTiB grain refiners in hypoeutectic Al-Si foundry alloys

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lu, L. [CSIRO Minerals, P.O. Box 883, Kenmore, Qld. 4069 (Australia)]. E-mail: Liming.Lu@csiro.au; Dahle, A.K. [CRC for Cast Metals Manufacturing, Division of Materials, School of Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld. 4072 (Australia)

    2006-11-05

    Strontium is the most widely used and a very effective element for modifying the morphology of eutectic silicon, while Ti and B are commonly present in the commercial grain refiners used for Al-Si alloys. Systematic studies on the effects of combined additions of Sr and different AlTiB grain refiners on the Al + Si eutectic and primary aluminium solidification have been performed. While slight coarsening of both eutectic Si and primary aluminium grains occurs during holding, no obvious interactions are observed between Sr and AlTiB grain refiners when the addition level of grain refiners is low. As a result, a well-modified and grain refined structure was obtained. However, strong negative interactions between Sr and Al1.5Ti1.5B were observed as the addition level of the grain refiner increases. It was found that these interactions have a much more profound impact on the eutectic solidification than the primary Al solidification. The melt treated with combined additions of Sr and Al1.5Ti1.5B still shows good grain refinement efficiency even after losing its modification completely. The mechanism responsible for such negative interactions is further discussed.

  11. Data refinement for true concurrency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brijesh Dongol

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available The majority of modern systems exhibit sophisticated concurrent behaviour, where several system components modify and observe the system state with fine-grained atomicity. Many systems (e.g., multi-core processors, real-time controllers also exhibit truly concurrent behaviour, where multiple events can occur simultaneously. This paper presents data refinement defined in terms of an interval-based framework, which includes high-level operators that capture non-deterministic expression evaluation. By modifying the type of an interval, our theory may be specialised to cover data refinement of both discrete and continuous systems. We present an interval-based encoding of forward simulation, then prove that our forward simulation rule is sound with respect to our data refinement definition. A number of rules for decomposing forward simulation proofs over both sequential and parallel composition are developed.

  12. Auditing the process of ethics approval for Master's degrees at a ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Objective. This study audited the process of ethics approval for Master's research at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods. After obtaining the appropriate ethical approval, all the correspondence surrounding each Master's proposal for the year 2010 was reviewed.

  13. Grain Refinement of Permanent Mold Cast Copper Base Alloys

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    M.Sadayappan; J.P.Thomson; M.Elboujdaini; G.Ping Gu; M. Sahoo

    2005-04-01

    Grain refinement is a well established process for many cast and wrought alloys. The mechanical properties of various alloys could be enhanced by reducing the grain size. Refinement is also known to improve casting characteristics such as fluidity and hot tearing. Grain refinement of copper-base alloys is not widely used, especially in sand casting process. However, in permanent mold casting of copper alloys it is now common to use grain refinement to counteract the problem of severe hot tearing which also improves the pressure tightness of plumbing components. The mechanism of grain refinement in copper-base alloys is not well understood. The issues to be studied include the effect of minor alloy additions on the microstructure, their interaction with the grain refiner, effect of cooling rate, and loss of grain refinement (fading). In this investigation, efforts were made to explore and understand grain refinement of copper alloys, especially in permanent mold casting conditions.

  14. Parallel Adaptive Mesh Refinement for High-Order Finite-Volume Schemes in Computational Fluid Dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwing, Alan Michael

    For computational fluid dynamics, the governing equations are solved on a discretized domain of nodes, faces, and cells. The quality of the grid or mesh can be a driving source for error in the results. While refinement studies can help guide the creation of a mesh, grid quality is largely determined by user expertise and understanding of the flow physics. Adaptive mesh refinement is a technique for enriching the mesh during a simulation based on metrics for error, impact on important parameters, or location of important flow features. This can offload from the user some of the difficult and ambiguous decisions necessary when discretizing the domain. This work explores the implementation of adaptive mesh refinement in an implicit, unstructured, finite-volume solver. Consideration is made for applying modern computational techniques in the presence of hanging nodes and refined cells. The approach is developed to be independent of the flow solver in order to provide a path for augmenting existing codes. It is designed to be applicable for unsteady simulations and refinement and coarsening of the grid does not impact the conservatism of the underlying numerics. The effect on high-order numerical fluxes of fourth- and sixth-order are explored. Provided the criteria for refinement is appropriately selected, solutions obtained using adapted meshes have no additional error when compared to results obtained on traditional, unadapted meshes. In order to leverage large-scale computational resources common today, the methods are parallelized using MPI. Parallel performance is considered for several test problems in order to assess scalability of both adapted and unadapted grids. Dynamic repartitioning of the mesh during refinement is crucial for load balancing an evolving grid. Development of the methods outlined here depend on a dual-memory approach that is described in detail. Validation of the solver developed here against a number of motivating problems shows favorable

  15. Comparing Syntactic and Semantics Action Refinement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Goltz, Ursula; Gorrieri, Roberto; Rensink, Arend

    The semantic definition of action refinement on labelled configuration structures is compared with the notion of syntactic substitution, which can be used as another notion of action refinement in a process algebraic setting. The comparison is done by studying a process algebra equipped with

  16. Neural networks applied to characterize blends containing refined and extra virgin olive oils.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aroca-Santos, Regina; Cancilla, John C; Pariente, Enrique S; Torrecilla, José S

    2016-12-01

    The identification and quantification of binary blends of refined olive oil with four different extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) varietals (Picual, Cornicabra, Hojiblanca and Arbequina) was carried out with a simple method based on combining visible spectroscopy and non-linear artificial neural networks (ANNs). The data obtained from the spectroscopic analysis was treated and prepared to be used as independent variables for a multilayer perceptron (MLP) model. The model was able to perfectly classify the EVOO varietal (100% identification rate), whereas the error for the quantification of EVOO in the mixtures containing between 0% and 20% of refined olive oil, in terms of the mean prediction error (MPE), was 2.14%. These results turn visible spectroscopy and MLP models into a trustworthy, user-friendly, low-cost technique which can be implemented on-line to characterize olive oil mixtures containing refined olive oil and EVOOs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Steel refining possibilities in LF

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dumitru, M. G.; Ioana, A.; Constantin, N.; Ciobanu, F.; Pollifroni, M.

    2018-01-01

    This article presents the main possibilities for steel refining in Ladle Furnace (LF). These, are presented: steelmaking stages, steel refining through argon bottom stirring, online control of the bottom stirring, bottom stirring diagram during LF treatment of a heat, porous plug influence over the argon stirring, bottom stirring porous plug, analysis of porous plugs disposal on ladle bottom surface, bottom stirring simulation with ANSYS, bottom stirring simulation with Autodesk CFD.

  18. Creativity: a refinement of the concept for nursing practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fasnacht, Patsy H

    2003-01-01

    This paper seeks to remove some of the ambiguity surrounding the conceptual meaning of creativity using techniques of concept refinement to advance the concept. Creativity is an essential component of nursing practice that occurs daily in nurse's interactions with clients, families and other nurses. Failure to acknowledge and encourage creativity in beginning nurses may hinder future development and innovations in nursing practice and in nursing science. In order to promote the development of creativity it is first necessary to clarify and refine the concept as it applies to nursing. A comprehensive review of a variety of computer and online databases resulted in thousands of articles on creativity between the years 1966 and 1999. The final sample (n = 48) was obtained using both stratified random and purposive sampling techniques. A content analysis of the literature was conducted using methods identified by Morse and illustrated in the work of Hupcey et al. Having determined the concept to be partially mature, the concept was advanced using techniques of concept refinement. Content analysis of the literature yielded three differing definitions for creativity: revelation, birth and reincarnation. Creativity occurs in the presence of intrinsic motivation and a nurturing environment. While value is often used to identify whether a product is creative, the value of the product cannot determine whether the process has occurred. The product produced determines evidence of the process of creativity. Limitations of this investigation are the use of secondary sources and the relatively small sample size (n = 48). Refinement of the concept of creativity indicates that it is a process that may be developed and influenced by the environment and is recognized by the product produced. Further investigation is needed to explore methods and techniques for developing creativity in nursing.

  19. Local multigrid mesh refinement in view of nuclear fuel 3D modelling in pressurised water reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barbie, L.

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this study is to improve the performances, in terms of memory space and computational time, of the current modelling of the Pellet-Cladding mechanical Interaction (PCI), complex phenomenon which may occurs during high power rises in pressurised water reactors. Among the mesh refinement methods - methods dedicated to efficiently treat local singularities - a local multi-grid approach was selected because it enables the use of a black-box solver while dealing few degrees of freedom at each level. The Local Defect Correction (LDC) method, well suited to a finite element discretization, was first analysed and checked in linear elasticity, on configurations resulting from the PCI, since its use in solid mechanics is little widespread. Various strategies concerning the implementation of the multilevel algorithm were also compared. Coupling the LDC method with the Zienkiewicz-Zhu a posteriori error estimator in order to automatically detect the zones to be refined, was then tested. Performances obtained on two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases are very satisfactory, since the algorithm proposed is more efficient than h-adaptive refinement methods. Lastly, the LDC algorithm was extended to nonlinear mechanics. Space/time refinement as well as transmission of the initial conditions during the re-meshing step were looked at. The first results obtained are encouraging and show the interest of using the LDC method for PCI modelling. (author) [fr

  20. On Syntactic and Semantic Action Refinement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hagiya, M.; Goltz, U.; Mitchell, J.C.; Gorrieri, R.; Rensink, Arend

    1994-01-01

    The semantic definition of action refinement on labelled event structures is compared with the notion of syntactic substitution, which can be used as another notion of action refinement in a process algebraic setting. This is done by studying a process algebra equipped with the ACP sequential

  1. Refinement for Transition Systems with Responses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Carbone

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Motivated by the response pattern for property specifications and applications within flexible workflow management systems, we report upon an initial study of modal and mixed transition systems in which the must transitions are interpreted as must eventually, and in which implementations can contain may behaviors that are resolved at run-time. We propose Transition Systems with Responses (TSRs as a suitable model for this study. We prove that TSRs correspond to a restricted class of mixed transition systems, which we refer to as the action-deterministic mixed transition systems. We show that TSRs allow for a natural definition of deadlocked and accepting states. We then transfer the standard definition of refinement for mixed transition systems to TSRs and prove that refinement does not preserve deadlock freedom. This leads to the proposal of safe refinements, which are those that preserve deadlock freedom. We exemplify the use of TSRs and (safe refinements on a small medication workflow.

  2. Design of Grain Refiners for Aluminium Alloys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tronche, A.; Greer, A. L.

    The efficiency of a grain refiner can be quantified as the number of grains per nucleant particle in the solidified product. Even for effective refiners in aluminium, such as Al-5Ti-1B, it is known from experiments that efficiencies are very low, at best 10-3 to 102. It is of interest to explore the reasons for such low values, and to assess the prospects for increased efficiency though design of refiners. Recently it has been shown [1] that a simple recalescence-based model can make quantitative predictions of grain size as a function of refiner addition level, cooling rate and solute content. In the model, the initiation of grains is limited by the free growth from nucleant particles, the size distribution of which is very important. The present work uses this model as the basis for discussing the effect of particle size distribution on grain refiner performance. Larger particles (of TiB2 in the case of present interest) promote greater efficiency, as do narrower size distributions. It is shown that even if the size distribution could be exactly specified, compromises would have to be made to balance efficiency (defined as above) with other desirable characteristics of a refiner.

  3. A refinement methodology for object-oriented programs

    OpenAIRE

    Tafat , Asma; Boulmé , Sylvain; Marché , Claude

    2010-01-01

    International audience; Refinement is a well-known approach for developing correct-byconstruction software. It has been very successful for producing high quality code e.g., as implemented in the B tool. Yet, such refinement techniques are restricted in the sense that they forbid aliasing (and more generally sharing of data-structures), which often happens in usual programming languages. We propose a sound approach for refinement in presence of aliases. Suitable abstractions of programs are d...

  4. Bauxite Mining and Alumina Refining

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frisch, Neale; Olney, David

    2014-01-01

    Objective: To describe bauxite mining and alumina refining processes and to outline the relevant physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial health risks. Methods: Review article. Results: The most important risks relate to noise, ergonomics, trauma, and caustic soda splashes of the skin/eyes. Other risks of note relate to fatigue, heat, and solar ultraviolet and for some operations tropical diseases, venomous/dangerous animals, and remote locations. Exposures to bauxite dust, alumina dust, and caustic mist in contemporary best-practice bauxite mining and alumina refining operations have not been demonstrated to be associated with clinically significant decrements in lung function. Exposures to bauxite dust and alumina dust at such operations are also not associated with the incidence of cancer. Conclusions: A range of occupational health risks in bauxite mining and alumina refining require the maintenance of effective control measures. PMID:24806720

  5. Project W-314 phase I environmental permits and approvals plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    TOLLEFSON, K.S.

    1999-01-01

    This document describes the range of environmental actions, including required permits and other agency approvals, for Project W-314 activities in the Hanford Site's Tank Waste Remediation System. This document outlines alternative approaches to satisfying applicable environmental standards, and describes selected strategies for acquiring permits and other approvals needed for waste feed delivery to proceed. This document also includes estimated costs and schedule to obtain the required permits and approvals based on the selected strategy. It also provides estimated costs for environmental support during design and construction based on the preliminary project schedule provided

  6. Experimental investigation of different refining stages influences on optical and ultrasonic signals in paper pulp suspensions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jan, Niemi

    2010-01-01

    An important parameter to control in papermaking is the fiber mass fraction in the pulp suspension. Poor control to an unstable process that compromises the production, quality and the energy efficiency in the pulp mill. Using optical or ultrasound measurement techniques can obtain estimation of the mass fraction. Refining is an important operation in preparing the fibers for the paper machine. Refining influence the properties of the fiber by crushing the fiber, roughens the fiber surface and occasionally cut fibers and removes parts of the outer fiber wall leading to an increasing amount of short fibers (fines). A freeness tester was used for verify the changes in fiber properties at four different refining levels. The result shows that for unbleached softwood pulp the used measurement techniques either were not observable or minor. The results indicate that refining can potentially influence accurate consistency estimation for unbleached softwood pulp but for bleached hardwood pulp the influence is believed to be minor using the investigating measurement techniques

  7. Refinements to calandria tube - liquid injection nozzle (CT-LIN) contact assessments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sedran, P.J.

    2012-01-01

    In recent years, the issue of CT-LIN contact, which first gained attention in 1989, has been addressed through CT-LIN gap measurements, followed by analytical predictions of time-to-contact. CT-LIN time-to-contact predictions have been preformed independently by CPUS Limited for Point Lepreau and Gentilly-2 and by AECL Sheridan Park (now Candu Energy Inc.) for Bruce Power and Gentilly-2. Both companies used the CDEPTH code in combination with CT-LIN gap measurements. Subsequent to the assessments for Point Lepreau and Gentilly-2, a recommended approach for future assessments was presented at the 2008 CANDU maintenance conference. Since that time, a number of refinements to the overall strategy for predicting CT-LIN time-to-contact have been developed and are outlined in this paper. The refinements include: 1. The use of ultrasonic LIN elevation measurements to confirm LIN creep sag behaviour 2. The development of a non-linear empirical CT Creep Sag Model 3. The development of a rationale for discrepancies observed in repeated optical CT-LIN gap measurements and a discussion of alternative CT-LIN gap measurements With these refinements, more accurate CT-LIN time-to-contact predictions can be obtained. For stations that plan to refurbish by 210,000 EFPH, the improvement in time-to-contact predictions resulting from the fore mentioned refinements will not be of any real benefit.. However, for stations that are planning life extensions in order to operate beyond 210,000 EFPH, CT-LIN contact will be an issue. For these stations, improvements in CT-LIN contact time predictions would be beneficial. This paper presents a summary of the proposed refinements and demonstrates how they would impact CT-LIN time-to-contact predictions. (author)

  8. Ethics Review Committee approval and informed consent: an analysis of biomedical publications originating from Sri Lanka

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siriwardhana Chesmal

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background International guidelines on research have focused on protecting research participants. Ethical Research Committee (ERC approval and informed consent are the cornerstones. Externally sponsored research requires approval through ethical review in both the host and the sponsoring country. This study aimed to determine to what extent ERC approval and informed consent procedures are documented in locally and internationally published human subject research carried out in Sri Lanka. Methods We obtained ERC approval in Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. Theses from 1985 to 2005 available at the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM library affiliated to the University of Colombo were scrutinised using checklists agreed in consultation with senior research collaborators. A Medline search was carried out with MeSH major and minor heading 'Sri Lanka' as the search term for international publications originating in Sri Lanka during 1999 to 2004. All research publications from CMJ during 1999 to 2005 were also scrutinized. Results Of 291 theses, 34% documented ERC approvals and 61% documented obtaining consent. From the international journal survey, 250 publications originated from Sri Lanka of which only 79 full text original research publications could be accessed electronically. Of these 38% documented ERC approval and 39% documented obtaining consent. In the Ceylon Medical Journal 36% documented ERC approval and 37% documented obtaining consent. Conclusion Only one third of the publications scrutinized recorded ERC approval and procurement of informed consent. However, there is a positive trend in documenting these ethical requirements in local postgraduate research and in the local medical journal.

  9. South Korea - oil refining overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayes, D.

    1999-01-01

    Following the economic problems of the 1990s, the petroleum refining industry of South Korea underwent much involuntary restructuring in 1999 with respect to takeovers and mergers and these are discussed. The demand for petroleum has now pretty well recovered. The reasons for fluctuating prices in the 1990s, how the new structure should be cushioned against changes in the future, and the potential for South Korea to export refined petroleum, are all discussed

  10. Adaptive Mesh Refinement in CTH

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Crawford, David

    1999-01-01

    This paper reports progress on implementing a new capability of adaptive mesh refinement into the Eulerian multimaterial shock- physics code CTH. The adaptivity is block-based with refinement and unrefinement occurring in an isotropic 2:1 manner. The code is designed to run on serial, multiprocessor and massive parallel platforms. An approximate factor of three in memory and performance improvements over comparable resolution non-adaptive calculations has-been demonstrated for a number of problems

  11. Order for execution of the law concerning regulation of nuclear source materials, nuclear fuel materials and reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1977-01-01

    The designations according to Item 1, Article 3 and Item 1, Article 13 of the Law must be obtained for each factory or business place where refining and fabrication of nuclear material are to be performed. One who wants to obtain such designation should file an application attached with a business plan and other documents via the director of a regional bureau of international trade and industry having jurisdiction over such factory or business place. When nuclear material refiners and nuclear material fabricators wish to obtain the approval for change stipulated in Item 1, Article 6 and Item 1, Article 16 of the Law, they must file applications to the Prime Minister and the Minister of International Trade and Industry via said directors. Chief handlers of nuclear fuel materials shall be approved among those meeting the strict requirements. One who wishes to install reactors must obtain the approval for each factory or business place where the reactors are to be installed. The permission must be obtained for each nuclear ship entering Japanese waters. The reactors proper and several facilities are subject to periodic inspection. (Rikitake, Y.)

  12. Price implications for Russia's oil refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khartukov, Eugene M.

    1998-01-01

    Over the past several years, Russia's oil industry has undergone its radical transformation from a wholly state-run and generously subsidized oil distribution system toward a substantially privatized, cash-strapped, and quasi-market ''petropreneurship''. This fully applies to the industry's downstream sector. Still unlike more dynamic E and C operations, the country's refining has turned out better fenced off competitive market forces and is less capable to respond to market imperatives. Consequently, jammed between depressed product prices and persistent feedstock costs, Russian refiners were badly hit by the world oil glut - which has made a radical modernization of the obsolete refining sector clearly a must. (author)

  13. Analysis of a HP-refinement method for solving the neutron transport equation using two error estimators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fournier, D.; Le Tellier, R.; Suteau, C.; Herbin, R.

    2011-01-01

    The solution of the time-independent neutron transport equation in a deterministic way invariably consists in the successive discretization of the three variables: energy, angle and space. In the SNATCH solver used in this study, the energy and the angle are respectively discretized with a multigroup approach and the discrete ordinate method. A set of spatial coupled transport equations is obtained and solved using the Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Method (DGFEM). Within this method, the spatial domain is decomposed into elements and the solution is approximated by a hierarchical polynomial basis in each one. This approach is time and memory consuming when the mesh becomes fine or the basis order high. To improve the computational time and the memory footprint, adaptive algorithms are proposed. These algorithms are based on an error estimation in each cell. If the error is important in a given region, the mesh has to be refined (h−refinement) or the polynomial basis order increased (p−refinement). This paper is related to the choice between the two types of refinement. Two ways to estimate the error are compared on different benchmarks. Analyzing the differences, a hp−refinement method is proposed and tested. (author)

  14. Grain refinement mechanism in A3003 alloy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cho, Hoon; Shin, Je-Sik; Lee, Byoung-Soo; Jo, Hyung-Ho

    2009-01-01

    In the present study, in order to find out an grain refinement mechanism, 0.1wt.% Al-10wt.%Ti master alloy was added into A3003 alloy melt contained in graphite crucible and in alumina crucible, and then the melt holding time at 750 deg. C was systematically changed from 1 min up to 120 min. It is interesting to note that the grain refinement and fading phenomena remarkably depend on the crucible material. The fading effect in the specimens using alumina crucible can be explained as the result of TiAl 3 phase dissolution into molten aluminium matrix. In the specimens using graphite crucible, the grain refinement was occurred gradually with increasing holding time. It was suggest that the continuous grain refinement is due to transition of refinement mechanism from TiAl 3 phase to TiC phase. It can be mentioned that the TiC formed from titanium and carbon solute in the aluminium melt, which came from the Al-10Ti alloy and the graphite crucible.

  15. Electron microscopy investigation of the TiBAl and TiCAl grain refiner master alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cizek, P

    2006-01-01

    The present work brings a detailed statistical analysis of the microstructural characteristics and chemistry of the second phase particles present in the Al-5Ti-1B and Al- 3Ti-0.15C (wt.%) commercial grain refiner rods used in the Al casting industry. The investigation was performed using the TEM, EDS, STEM and HREM techniques. Both refiner rods contained large, blocky Al 3 Ti DO 22 particles. Borides present in the TiBAl rod, known to be main α-Al nucleation substrates, exhibited a facetted, hexagonal platelet morphology and largely represented a mixed (Ti,Al)B 2 phase, with Ti and Al contents changing continuously across the particle dimensions. There were two distinct families of small particles observed in the TiCAl rod. The coarser, facetted particles corresponded to cubic TiC crystal structure and these are believed to be major α-Al nucleation sites. The family of finer, round particles appeared to correspond to orthorhombic Al 6 Fe phase and their role in the nucleation process remains to be clarified. The results obtained may be used in optimising the grain refiner rod microstructures that would ensure improved refining performance during casting

  16. Electron microscopy investigation of the TiBAl and TiCAl grain refiner master alloys

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cizek, P [IMMPETUS, Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD (United Kingdom)

    2006-02-22

    The present work brings a detailed statistical analysis of the microstructural characteristics and chemistry of the second phase particles present in the Al-5Ti-1B and Al- 3Ti-0.15C (wt.%) commercial grain refiner rods used in the Al casting industry. The investigation was performed using the TEM, EDS, STEM and HREM techniques. Both refiner rods contained large, blocky Al{sub 3}Ti DO{sub 22} particles. Borides present in the TiBAl rod, known to be main {alpha}-Al nucleation substrates, exhibited a facetted, hexagonal platelet morphology and largely represented a mixed (Ti,Al)B{sub 2} phase, with Ti and Al contents changing continuously across the particle dimensions. There were two distinct families of small particles observed in the TiCAl rod. The coarser, facetted particles corresponded to cubic TiC crystal structure and these are believed to be major {alpha}-Al nucleation sites. The family of finer, round particles appeared to correspond to orthorhombic Al{sub 6}Fe phase and their role in the nucleation process remains to be clarified. The results obtained may be used in optimising the grain refiner rod microstructures that would ensure improved refining performance during casting.

  17. Refining discordant gene trees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Górecki, Pawel; Eulenstein, Oliver

    2014-01-01

    Evolutionary studies are complicated by discordance between gene trees and the species tree in which they evolved. Dealing with discordant trees often relies on comparison costs between gene and species trees, including the well-established Robinson-Foulds, gene duplication, and deep coalescence costs. While these costs have provided credible results for binary rooted gene trees, corresponding cost definitions for non-binary unrooted gene trees, which are frequently occurring in practice, are challenged by biological realism. We propose a natural extension of the well-established costs for comparing unrooted and non-binary gene trees with rooted binary species trees using a binary refinement model. For the duplication cost we describe an efficient algorithm that is based on a linear time reduction and also computes an optimal rooted binary refinement of the given gene tree. Finally, we show that similar reductions lead to solutions for computing the deep coalescence and the Robinson-Foulds costs. Our binary refinement of Robinson-Foulds, gene duplication, and deep coalescence costs for unrooted and non-binary gene trees together with the linear time reductions provided here for computing these costs significantly extends the range of trees that can be incorporated into approaches dealing with discordance.

  18. Morse Set Classification and Hierarchical Refinement Using Conley Index

    KAUST Repository

    Guoning Chen,; Qingqing Deng,; Szymczak, A.; Laramee, R. S.; Zhang, E.

    2012-01-01

    Morse decomposition provides a numerically stable topological representation of vector fields that is crucial for their rigorous interpretation. However, Morse decomposition is not unique, and its granularity directly impacts its computational cost. In this paper, we propose an automatic refinement scheme to construct the Morse Connection Graph (MCG) of a given vector field in a hierarchical fashion. Our framework allows a Morse set to be refined through a local update of the flow combinatorialization graph, as well as the connection regions between Morse sets. The computation is fast because the most expensive computation is concentrated on a small portion of the domain. Furthermore, the present work allows the generation of a topologically consistent hierarchy of MCGs, which cannot be obtained using a global method. The classification of the extracted Morse sets is a crucial step for the construction of the MCG, for which the Poincar index is inadequate. We make use of an upper bound for the Conley index, provided by the Betti numbers of an index pair for a translation along the flow, to classify the Morse sets. This upper bound is sufficiently accurate for Morse set classification and provides supportive information for the automatic refinement process. An improved visualization technique for MCG is developed to incorporate the Conley indices. Finally, we apply the proposed techniques to a number of synthetic and real-world simulation data to demonstrate their utility. © 2006 IEEE.

  19. Morse Set Classification and Hierarchical Refinement Using Conley Index

    KAUST Repository

    Guoning Chen,

    2012-05-01

    Morse decomposition provides a numerically stable topological representation of vector fields that is crucial for their rigorous interpretation. However, Morse decomposition is not unique, and its granularity directly impacts its computational cost. In this paper, we propose an automatic refinement scheme to construct the Morse Connection Graph (MCG) of a given vector field in a hierarchical fashion. Our framework allows a Morse set to be refined through a local update of the flow combinatorialization graph, as well as the connection regions between Morse sets. The computation is fast because the most expensive computation is concentrated on a small portion of the domain. Furthermore, the present work allows the generation of a topologically consistent hierarchy of MCGs, which cannot be obtained using a global method. The classification of the extracted Morse sets is a crucial step for the construction of the MCG, for which the Poincar index is inadequate. We make use of an upper bound for the Conley index, provided by the Betti numbers of an index pair for a translation along the flow, to classify the Morse sets. This upper bound is sufficiently accurate for Morse set classification and provides supportive information for the automatic refinement process. An improved visualization technique for MCG is developed to incorporate the Conley indices. Finally, we apply the proposed techniques to a number of synthetic and real-world simulation data to demonstrate their utility. © 2006 IEEE.

  20. Basic effects of pulp refining on fiber properties--a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gharehkhani, Samira; Sadeghinezhad, Emad; Kazi, Salim Newaz; Yarmand, Hooman; Badarudin, Ahmad; Safaei, Mohammad Reza; Zubir, Mohd Nashrul Mohd

    2015-01-22

    The requirement for high quality pulps which are widely used in paper industries has increased the demand for pulp refining (beating) process. Pulp refining is a promising approach to improve the pulp quality by changing the fiber characteristics. The diversity of research on the effect of refining on fiber properties which is due to the different pulp sources, pulp consistency and refining equipment has interested us to provide a review on the studies over the last decade. In this article, the influence of pulp refining on structural properties i.e., fibrillations, fine formation, fiber length, fiber curl, crystallinity and distribution of surface chemical compositions is reviewed. The effect of pulp refining on electrokinetic properties of fiber e.g., surface and total charges of pulps is discussed. In addition, an overview of different refining theories, refiners as well as some tests for assessing the pulp refining is presented. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Oil refining expansion criteria for Brazil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tavares, M.E.E.; Szklo, A.S.; Machado, G.V.; Schaeffer, R.; Mariano, J.B.; Sala, J.F.

    2006-01-01

    This paper assesses different strategies for the expansion of Brazil's oil refining segment, using criteria that range from energy security (reducing imports and vulnerability for key products) through to maximizing the profitability of this sector (boosting the output of higher value oil products) and adding value to Brazil's oil production (reducing exports of heavy acid oil). The development prospects are analyzed for conventional fuel production technology routes, sketching out three possible refining schemes for Brazilian oil and a GTL plant for producing gasoil from natural gas. Market scenario simulations indicate that investments will be required in Brazil's oil refining segment over and above those allocated to planned modifications in its current facilities, reducing the nation's vulnerability in terms of gasoil and petrochemical naphtha imports. Although not economically attractive, oil refining is a key activity that is crucial to oil company strategies. The decision to invest in this segment depends on local infrastructure conditions, environmental constraints and fuel specifications, in addition to oil company strategies, steady growth in demand and the definition of a government policy that eases institutional risks. (author)

  2. Oil refining expansion criteria for Brazil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tavares, Marina Elisabete Espinho; Szklo, Alexandre Salem; Machado, Giovani Vitoria; Schaeffer, Roberto; Mariano, Jacqueline Barboza; Sala, Janaina Francisco

    2006-01-01

    This paper assesses different strategies for the expansion of Brazil's oil refining segment, using criteria that range from energy security (reducing imports and vulnerability for key products) through to maximizing the profitability of this sector (boosting the output of higher value oil products) and adding value to Brazil's oil production (reducing exports of heavy acid oil). The development prospects are analyzed for conventional fuel production technology routes, sketching out three possible refining schemes for Brazilian oil and a GTL plant for producing gasoil from natural gas. Market scenario simulations indicate that investments will be required in Brazil's oil refining segment over and above those allocated to planned modifications in its current facilities, reducing the nation's vulnerability in terms of gasoil and petrochemical naphtha imports. Although not economically attractive, oil refining is a key activity that is crucial to oil company strategies. The decision to invest in this segment depends on local infrastructure conditions, environmental constraints and fuel specifications, in addition to oil company strategies, steady growth in demand and the definition of a government policy that eases institutional risks

  3. Accurate macromolecular crystallographic refinement: incorporation of the linear scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics program DivCon into the PHENIX refinement package

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Borbulevych, Oleg Y.; Plumley, Joshua A.; Martin, Roger I. [QuantumBio Inc., 2790 West College Avenue, State College, PA 16801 (United States); Merz, Kenneth M. Jr [University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (United States); Westerhoff, Lance M., E-mail: lance@quantumbioinc.com [QuantumBio Inc., 2790 West College Avenue, State College, PA 16801 (United States)

    2014-05-01

    Semiempirical quantum-chemical X-ray macromolecular refinement using the program DivCon integrated with PHENIX is described. Macromolecular crystallographic refinement relies on sometimes dubious stereochemical restraints and rudimentary energy functionals to ensure the correct geometry of the model of the macromolecule and any covalently bound ligand(s). The ligand stereochemical restraint file (CIF) requires a priori understanding of the ligand geometry within the active site, and creation of the CIF is often an error-prone process owing to the great variety of potential ligand chemistry and structure. Stereochemical restraints have been replaced with more robust functionals through the integration of the linear-scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics (SE-QM) program DivCon with the PHENIX X-ray refinement engine. The PHENIX/DivCon package has been thoroughly validated on a population of 50 protein–ligand Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures with a range of resolutions and chemistry. The PDB structures used for the validation were originally refined utilizing various refinement packages and were published within the past five years. PHENIX/DivCon does not utilize CIF(s), link restraints and other parameters for refinement and hence it does not make as many a priori assumptions about the model. Across the entire population, the method results in reasonable ligand geometries and low ligand strains, even when the original refinement exhibited difficulties, indicating that PHENIX/DivCon is applicable to both single-structure and high-throughput crystallography.

  4. Preparation of Al-Ti-B grain refiner by SHS technology[Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nikitin, V.I.; Wanqi, J.I.E.; Kandalova, E.G.; Makarenko, A.G.; Yong, L.

    2000-02-01

    Since the discovery of the grain refinement effect of aluminum by titanium, especially with the existence of B or C in 1950, grain refiners are widely accepted in industry for microstructure control of aluminum alloys. Research on this topic is to obtain the highest grain refinement efficiency with the lowest possible addition of master alloy. It is widely accepted that the morphology and size of TiAl{sub 3} particles, which are known as heterogeneous nucleation centers, are important factors deterring the grain refinement efficiency. Fine TiAl{sub 3} particles are favorable. The grain refinement process shows a heredity phenomenon, which means that structural information from initial materials transfers through a melt to the final product. It is important to find the connection between microstructural parameters of the master alloy and the final product. To improve the quality of Al-Ti-B master alloys for the use as a grain refiner, a new method based on SHS (self-propagating high-temperature synthesis) technology has been developed in Samara State Technical University to produce the master alloys. SHS, as a new method for preparation of materials, was first utilized by Merzhanov in 1967. This method uses the energy from highly exothermic reactions to sustain the chemical reaction in a combustion wave. The advantages of SHS include simplicity, low energy requirement, and higher product purity. Because SHS reactions can take place between elemental reactants, it is easy to control product composition. The purposes of this investigation were to fabricate an SHS Al-5%Ti-1%B master alloy, to analyze its structure and to test its grain refining performance.

  5. Refined large N duality for knots

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kameyama, Masaya; Nawata, Satoshi

    We formulate large N duality of U(N) refined Chern-Simons theory with a torus knot/link in S³. By studying refined BPS states in M-theory, we provide the explicit form of low-energy effective actions of Type IIA string theory with D4-branes on the Ω-background. This form enables us to relate...

  6. Region-of-interest volumetric visual hull refinement

    KAUST Repository

    Knoblauch, Daniel; Kuester, Falko

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces a region-of-interest visual hull refinement technique, based on flexible voxel grids for volumetric visual hull reconstructions. Region-of-interest refinement is based on a multipass process, beginning with a focussed visual

  7. Minimally refined biomass fuel. [carbohydrate-water-alcohol mixture

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pearson, R.K.; Hirschfeld, T.B.

    1981-03-26

    A minimally refined fluid composition, suitable as a fuel mixture and derived from biomass material, is comprised of one or more water-soluble carbohydrates such as sucrose, one or more alcohols having less than four carbons, and water. The carbohydrate provides the fuel source; water-solubilizes the carbohydrate; and the alcohol aids in the combustion of the carbohydrate and reduces the viscosity of the carbohydrate/water solution. Because less energy is required to obtain the carbohydrate from the raw biomass than alcohol, an overall energy savings is realized compared to fuels employing alcohol as the primary fuel.

  8. US refining reviewed

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, N.D.

    1998-01-01

    The paper reviews the history, present position and future prospects of the petroleum industry in the USA. The main focus is on supply and demand, the high quality of the products, refinery capacity and product trade balances. Diagrams show historical trends in output, product demand, demand for transport fuels and oil, refinery capacity, refinery closures, and imports and exports. Some particularly salient points brought out were (i) production of US crude shows a marked downward trend but imports of crude will continue to increase, (ii) product demand will continue to grow even though the levels are already high, (iii) the demand is dominated by those products that typically yield the highest income for the refiner, (i.e. high quality transport fuels for environmental compliance), (iv) refinery capacity has decreased since 1980 and (v) refining will continue to have financial problems but will still be profitable. (UK)

  9. Challenges of the refining and bio-refining integration: a future view; O desafio da integracao refino-bio-refino: uma visao do futuro

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baptista, Claudia Alvarenga; Oliveira, Sandra Lima de [PETROBRAS S. A., Rio de de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Silva, Suely Coutinho da [Hope Consultoria Ltda., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2008-07-01

    As the world economy growths, it is expected an increase in the fuels demand. In the other hand, there is a public denounce against the harmful of gas emissions from the mineral fuels, especial the emission of greenhouse gases. Based on this scenario, there is a growing search for renewable fuels as an alternative for the present world energetic matrix. Therefore the biofuel has conquered more and more participation in the economy as a clean grow-your-own fuel. It is not only a renewable fuel but also a way to reduces Co2 emission. The use of this kind of fuel can bring environmental, social and economic advantages. So, a feasible proposal for the near future could be the performance of a binomial and dynamic model that takes place in the integration between biorefining and conventional refining. Biorefining is similar in concept to the petroleum refining industry, except that renewable biomass materials or vegetable oil are the feedstocks rather than crude oil. An important incentive to the integration of these two concepts is the alternative to process the majority of the conventional refining residue or by products in the biorefining. It is possible to produce high quality low emission fuel from co-conversion of biomass and petroleum residue. There are important processes that can be used to carry out this object, such as gasification coupled with Fischer-Tropsch. Besides the production of PREMIUM quality fuel, the energy and the hydrogen obtained in the gasification process can be used in the conventional refining. Biomass can also be turned into alcohol fuel by enzymatic hydrolysis and can be mixed in the refinery gasoline pool for emissions reduction. Another possibility is to process vegetable oil together with middle distillate in the conventional hydrotreating unity. Although the optimized integration involves technical and economic challenges, it is known that this is an important opportunity to mitigate the environmental problems and to allow the world

  10. Neutrosophic Refined Similarity Measure Based on Cosine Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Said Broumi

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the cosine similarity measure of neutrosophic refined (multi- sets is proposed and its properties are studied. The concept of this cosine similarity measure of neutrosophic refined sets is the extension of improved cosine similarity measure of single valued neutrosophic. Finally, using this cosine similarity measure of neutrosophic refined set, the application of medical diagnosis is presented.

  11. Future of French refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calvet, B.

    1993-01-01

    Over recent years, the refining industry has had to grapple with a growing burden of environmental and safety regulations concerning not only its plants and other facilities, but also its end products. At the same time, it has had to bear the effects of the reduction of the special status that used to apply to petroleum, and the consequences of economic freedom, to which we should add, as specifically concerns the French market, the impact of energy policy and the pro-nuclear option. The result is a drop in heavy fuel oil from 36 million tonnes per year in 1973 to 6.3 million in 1992, and in home-heating fuel from 37 to 18 million per year. This fast-moving market is highly competitive. The French market in particular is wide open to imports, but the refining companies are still heavy exporters for those products with high added-value, like lubricants, jet fuel, and lead-free gasolines. The competition has led the refining companies to commit themselves to quality, and to publicize their efforts in this direction. This is why the long-term perspectives for petroleum fuels are still wide open. This is supported by the probable expectation that the goal of economic efficiency is likely to soften the effects of the energy policy, which penalizes petroleum products, in that they have now become competitive again. In the European context, with the challenge of environmental protection and the decline in heavy fuel outlets, French refining has to keep on improving the quality of its products and plants, which means major investments. The industry absolutely must return to a more normal level of profitability, in order to sustain this financial effort, and generate the prosperity of its high-performance plants and equipment. 1 fig., 5 tabs

  12. The evolution of oil refining in Europe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reid, A. [CONCAWE, Brussels (Belgium)

    2013-04-01

    Back in 1963 when CONCAWE was founded, the world looked very different from what it is today, and so did the global and European refining industry. Oil product markets were expanding fast and new refineries were being built at a steady rate. The oil crisis of the 1970s brought an abrupt end to this, heralding a long era of consolidation and stepwise adaptation. At the same time the nature of the global oil business shifted from fully integrated companies producing, transporting and refining their own oil to a much more diversified situation where oil production ('upstream') and refining/distribution ('downstream') gradually became two essentially separate businesses. From being purely a 'cost centre' in an integrated chain, refining has become a separate activity in its own right, operating as a 'profit centre' between two global markets - crude oil and products - which, although not entirely independent, have their own dynamics and influences. In addition demand gradually shifted towards lighter products while the quality requirements on all products were considerably tightened. This article explores the new challenges that these changes have imposed on EU refiners, and describes CONCAWE's contributions to understanding their impact on refinery production and investments.

  13. [Reporting ethics board approval in German medical theses and journals].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zenz, Michael; Zenz, Julia; Grieger, Maximilian

    2018-06-05

    Since 1975, the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (WMA) has clearly required ethics committee approval for research into humans. Nevertheless, this Declaration is violated quite often. As many English-language publications have addressed the theme of ethics board approval in theses and other published works, it is now to be investigated in Germany for the first time.From 2013 to 2014, a total of 1,482 medical theses at four selected universities in addition to three German-language scientific journals were reviewed. In 543 theses, reference to ethics approval would have been required according to the criteria of the Declaration of Helsinki.However, ethics approval was stated in only 58.7% of cases, and even less frequently if the prevailing doctoral regulations or instructions did not refer to the necessity of obtaining ethics approval. Theses on pediatrics mentioned ethics approval most frequently (78.6%), whereas the proportion of surgical papers was the lowest (34.9%). Among the journals, Der Nervenarzt mentioned ethics approval most frequently (59.4%) and Der Chirurg least frequently (30%).Our results point to significant deficits in mentioning ethics approval in medical theses and publications. These deficits could easily be compensated for by a thorough approach of the referees of doctoral regulations and by journal reviewers and editors.

  14. High-speed double-disc TMP [thermomechanical pulp] from northern and southern softwoods: One or two refining stages

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sabourin, M.J. (Andritz Sprout-Bauer, Inc., Springfield, OH (United States)); Cort, J.B.; Musselman, R.L. (Andritz Sprout-Bauer, Inc., Muncy, PA (United States))

    1994-01-01

    Pilot-plant studies were carried out to evaluate one- and two-stage high-speed refining processes for production of thermomechanical pulp (TMP) at minimal energy consumption. Both northern (black spruce/balsam fir) and southern (lobolly pine) wood species were tested. Preliminary results indicate both one- and two-stage high-speed refining are suitable for the production of TMP from spruce and fir. Single-stage, high-speed refining of spruce/fir resulted in over 25% energy savings compared to conventional TMP production. The resulting TMP had improved optical and shive content properties, with slightly reduced pulp strength and long fiber content. Two stages of refining were necessary to optimize pulp quality from the lobolly pine furnish. A 15% energy reduction was obtained when comparing high-speed and conventional TMP pulping of lobolly pine at similar operating conditions. The high-speed pine TMP had comparable bonding strength, shive content, and lower tear than conventional two-stage lobolly pine TMP. 14 refs., 11 figs., 6 tabs.

  15. Recovery of condensates from the thermal wood refinement extraction of biomolecules

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roschitz, C.; Martini, S.; Kleinhappl, M. (Austrian Bioenergy Centre GmbH, Area Gasification, Graz (Austria)); Jenny, M.; Wrulicit, O.A.; Wondrak, A.; Ueberall, E. (Innsbruck University of Medicine, Biocenter, Division of Medical Biochemistry, Innsbruck (Austria)); Fillafer, F.; Steiner, F. (Mafi Holzverarbeitung GmbH, Schneegattern (Austria)); Draxler, J. (Leoben University of Mining and Materials, Institute for Process technology and Industrial Environment Protection, Leoben (Austria))

    2007-07-01

    Generally the utilisation of woody biomass is dominated by the pulp and paper industry, its use for energy production by combustion or gasification and as a construction material. A large potential of substances could be gained directly and indirectly from biomass. During industrial processes like the thermal wood refinement or the digestion from wood to pulp a large spectrum of substances could be recovered. This paper gives an idea of how to obtain and use those special substances contained in woody biomass. Therefore this project was launched to investigate exhaust vapours originating from industrial wood refining processes. The exhaust vapour of a thermal wood refinement chamber, which works at 150 - 220 deg C, was sampled and its constituents of low amount were investigated. Substance classes like organic acids, aldehydes, esters alcohols, lignin fractions and resin like compounds were identified. The bioactivity of the samples was investigated in biological test procedures, to identify the characteristic pattern of impression (toxicity, antioxidants, gene expression). The technological step of recovery in small ale during the refinery process is under construction and will perform the staged recovery of valuable fractions. The pilot scale plant will give the chance to gain test fractions in sufficient amount to generate materials for application as chemicals, additives for detergents and cleaning agents. (orig.)

  16. Refining of raw materials, lignite present economic problems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schirmer, G.

    1985-06-01

    East Germany seeks an economic intensification program that involves refining raw materials to a higher level. Lignite briquetting prior to liquefaction and gasification illustrates both the theoretical and practical aspects of that goal and also introduces questions of secure supplies. The author describes the special labor processes, use of technology, recycling of waste materials, and other new problems that the approach entails as the refined raw materials become new materials or energy sources. Economics based on the value of the refined product and the cost of the materials determine the degree of refinement. The concept also involves the relationship of producer and user as profits increase.

  17. Refining's-clean new jingle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that at a time when profit margins are slim and gasoline demand is down, the U.S. petroleum-refining industry is facing one of its greatest challenges; How to meet new federal and state laws for reformulated gasoline, oxygenated fuels, low-sulfur diesel and other measures to improve the environment. The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimates that industry will spend between $15 and $23 billion by the end of the decade to meet the U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990, and other legislation. ENSR Consulting and Engineering's capital-spending figure runs to between $70 and 100 billion this decade, including $24 billion to produce reformulated fuels and $10-12 billion to reduce refinery emissions. M.W. Kellogg Co. estimates that refiners may have to spend up to $30 billion this decade to meet the demand for reformulated gasoline. The estimates are wide-ranging because refiners are still studying their options and delaying final decisions as long as they can, to try to ensure they are the best and least-costly decisions. Oxygenated fuels will be required next winter, but federal regulations for reformulated gasoline won't go into effect until 1995, while California's tougher reformulated-fuels law will kick in the following year

  18. Frequency-restrained structure-factor refinement. Pt. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lunin, V.Yu.; Skovoroda, T.P.

    1991-01-01

    An analysis of the frequencies of different values encountered in protein electron-density syntheses reveals characteristic shapes for their distributions (histograms). This property can be used to refine ill-defined phases (and, perhaps, some of the moduli) of structure factors, and thus to obtain more-interpretable electron-density maps. A simple empirical model is designed which can predict the histogram for a protein with an undetermined structure provided its unit-cell volume and charge are known. The parameters of the histogram model are derived from a set of proteins with known spatial structures. The application of the simulated histogram is illustrated by an improved electron-density map for the 'dry' form of the protein γ-crystallin IIIb. (orig.)

  19. Refinement of the concept of uncertainty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penrod, J

    2001-04-01

    To analyse the conceptual maturity of uncertainty; to develop an expanded theoretical definition of uncertainty; to advance the concept using methods of concept refinement; and to analyse congruency with the conceptualization of uncertainty presented in the theory of hope, enduring, and suffering. Uncertainty is of concern in nursing as people experience complex life events surrounding health. In an earlier nursing study that linked the concepts of hope, enduring, and suffering into a single theoretical scheme, a state best described as 'uncertainty' arose. This study was undertaken to explore how this conceptualization fit with the scientific literature on uncertainty and to refine the concept. Initially, a concept analysis using advanced methods described by Morse, Hupcey, Mitcham and colleagues was completed. The concept was determined to be partially mature. A theoretical definition was derived and techniques of concept refinement using the literature as data were applied. The refined concept was found to be congruent with the concept of uncertainty that had emerged in the model of hope, enduring and suffering. Further investigation is needed to explore the extent of probabilistic reasoning and the effects of confidence and control on feelings of uncertainty and certainty.

  20. Refinement Checking on Parametric Modal Transition Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Benes, Nikola; Kretínsky, Jan; Larsen, Kim Guldstrand

    2015-01-01

    Modal transition systems (MTS) is a well-studied specification formalism of reactive systems supporting a step-wise refinement methodology. Despite its many advantages, the formalism as well as its currently known extensions are incapable of expressing some practically needed aspects in the refin...

  1. Japan's refiner/marketers headed for major shakeout

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1996-01-01

    Japan's downstream oil industry is in a state of crisis and headed for a major shakeout. The major catalyst for this was a dramatic deregulation step during April 1996 that allowed refined petroleum product imports by non-refiners. The move, together with a sharp drop in refining margins, falling retail gasoline prices, and a service station sector on the brink of collapse, are all leading to massive changes in the way the country's refiners and marketers do business. This paper reviews the collapse of corporate profits during this period of deregulation; the development of a new price system geared toward bringing the prices of gasoline, fuel oil, and kerosene into line with each other to offset the fall in gasoline prices; and industry restructuring including mergers, acquisitions, and marketing consolidation. The paper then makes predictions on the outcome of these changes on the Japanese oil industry

  2. Role and distribution of strontium during the dissolving and grain refining process of AlSi7Mg alloy's structure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moldovan, P.; Popescu, G.; Zsigmond, M.; Apostolescu, I. [Universitatea Politehnica, Bucharest (Romania)

    2002-07-01

    The aim of this paper is the study of the modification of AlSi7Mg alloy with two types of master alloys: AlSr10 wire type and AlSr10 block type, at a temperature of 750 C with different contents of strontium. Due to the applicability of the AlSr10 master alloy wire type, the study was mainly elaborated on the dissolving process of this one. Due to this fact we used a 10 mm diameter wire of AlSr10 master alloy, which was introduced in the melt. After the grain refining process we obtained a sample, which was cut at different heights for a better observation of the alloy structure. We can notice that the grain refining degree is not uniform along the sample. Strontium as a grain refiner equalize the qualities of sodium but is much more efficient and keeps its grain refining properties for a longer period of time. The efficiency of the two types of master alloys was compared by the grain refinement degree of AlSi7Mg alloy function of the distance till the lower part of the casting mould and by determination of the grain refinement degree function of strontium content added. We made a micrographic study of the pieces of the sample and we used an optical microscope (OLYMPUS BX 60M) and the image analyzing system was OMNIMENT EXPRESS. Analyzing the results of this study we can see that the AlSi7Mg alloy grain refining degree doesn't depend too much on the form of the master alloy (if is wire or block) but grain refining time is increased when we use block types of master alloy. Also we can see that the cooling rate has a significant influence on the grain refinement degree. The industrial application of the AlSr master alloys are mainly for the light alloys ingots producers and light alloys casting plant for the obtaining of high quality components required by automotive and aeronautical industry. (orig.)

  3. Studies of the Action of Grain-Refining Particles in Aluminium Alloys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schumacher, P.; Greer, A. L.

    Crystallization from a melt and from a metallic glass both occur in an undercooled liquid. In this way identical nucleation mechanisms can operate in the two cases. However, in metallic glasses, unlike conventional solidification at low undercooling, the low atomic mobility permits the resolution and microscopical study of nucleation processes on added particles. Conventional aluminium grain-refiner based on Al-Ti-B has been used to obtain nucleant particles embedded in a glassy matrix of Al85Y8Ni5Co2 (at%). During crystallization from the glassy state, nucleation and growth of α-Al can be observed on TiB2 particles coated with a layer of Al3Ti Empirical relations found in casting practice of Al-alloys, such as excess Ti necessary for grain refinement, can be related to the observed nucleation mechanism, which is found to be very sensitive to both crystallographic and chemical factors.

  4. Pilot scale refinning of crude soybean oil | Mensah | Journal of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Pilot scale refinning of crude soybean oil. ... Abstract. A laboratory process for refining soybean has been scaled up to a 145 tonne per annum pilot plant to refine crude soybean oil. ... The quality of the refined oil was found to be within national and codex standard specifications for edible oil from vegetable sources.

  5. An overview of the regulation of uranium mining, milling, refining and fuel fabrication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smythe, W.D.

    1980-07-01

    The mining, milling, refining and fabrication of uranium into nuclear fuel are activities that have in common the handling of natural uranium. The occupational and environmental hazards resulting from these activities vary widely. Uranium presents a radiological hazard throughout, but the principal culprit is radium which creates an occupational hazard in the mine and mill and an environmental hazard in the waste products produced in both the mill and the refinery. The chemicals used in both these latter processes also present hazards. Fuel fabrication presents the least potential for occupational and environmental hazards. The Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board licenses eight plants, and one plant for the extraction of uranium from phosphoric acid. The licensing process is characterised by approval in stages, the placing of the burden of proof on the applicant, inspection at all stages, and joint review by all regulatory agencies involved

  6. Technological studies on uranium refining at nuclear materials authority, Egypt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohammed, H.S.

    1997-01-01

    In 1992 nuclear materials authority (NMA) took a decision to establish yellow cake refining. Unit so as to study refining of El-Atshan yellow cake which recently produced by ion-exchange pilot plant, production sector. The research studies followed the conventional refining rout to produce nuclear grade UO 3 . This implies investigations on some common solvents to refine the cake viz. tri alkyl phosphates, tri alkyl phosphine oxides, dialkyl phosphoric acid as well as high-molecular weight long-chain tertiary amines. Moreover, non-conventional refining process has also been presented depending on the selectivity of uranyl ion to be dissolved by carbonate and to be precipitated by hydrogen peroxide. Most of the proposed processes were found feasible to refine El-Atshan yellow cake. however, the non- conventional refining process appears to be the most promising, owing to its superior performance and economy

  7. Cavitation-aided grain refinement in aluminium alloys

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Atamanenko, T.V.

    2010-01-01

    This thesis deals with grain refinement under the influence of ultrasonic-driven cavitation in aluminium casting processes. Three major goals of this research were: (1) to identify the mechanism of the cavitation-aided grain refinement at different stages of solidification; (2) to reveal the

  8. Accurate macromolecular crystallographic refinement: incorporation of the linear scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics program DivCon into the PHENIX refinement package.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borbulevych, Oleg Y; Plumley, Joshua A; Martin, Roger I; Merz, Kenneth M; Westerhoff, Lance M

    2014-05-01

    Macromolecular crystallographic refinement relies on sometimes dubious stereochemical restraints and rudimentary energy functionals to ensure the correct geometry of the model of the macromolecule and any covalently bound ligand(s). The ligand stereochemical restraint file (CIF) requires a priori understanding of the ligand geometry within the active site, and creation of the CIF is often an error-prone process owing to the great variety of potential ligand chemistry and structure. Stereochemical restraints have been replaced with more robust functionals through the integration of the linear-scaling, semiempirical quantum-mechanics (SE-QM) program DivCon with the PHENIX X-ray refinement engine. The PHENIX/DivCon package has been thoroughly validated on a population of 50 protein-ligand Protein Data Bank (PDB) structures with a range of resolutions and chemistry. The PDB structures used for the validation were originally refined utilizing various refinement packages and were published within the past five years. PHENIX/DivCon does not utilize CIF(s), link restraints and other parameters for refinement and hence it does not make as many a priori assumptions about the model. Across the entire population, the method results in reasonable ligand geometries and low ligand strains, even when the original refinement exhibited difficulties, indicating that PHENIX/DivCon is applicable to both single-structure and high-throughput crystallography.

  9. Orbit Refinement of Asteroids and Comets Using a Robotic Telescope Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lantz Caughey, Austin; Brown, Johnny; Puckett, Andrew W.; Hoette, Vivian L.; Johnson, Michael; McCarty, Cameron B.; Whitmore, Kevin; UNC-Chapel Hill SKYNET Team

    2016-01-01

    We report on a multi-semester project to refine the orbits of asteroids and comets in our Solar System. One of the newest fields of research for undergraduate Astrophysics students at Columbus State University is that of asteroid astrometry. By measuring the positions of an asteroid in a set of images, we can reduce the overall uncertainty in the accepted orbital parameters of that object. These measurements, using our WestRock Observatory (WRO) and several other telescopes around the world, are being published through the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and benefit the global community.Three different methods are used to obtain these observations. First, we use our own 24-inch telescope at WRO, located in at CSU's Coca-Cola Space Science Center in downtown Columbus, Georgia . Second, we have access to data from the 20-inch telescope at Stone Edge Observatory in El Verano, California. Finally, we may request images remotely using Skynet, an online worldwide network of robotic telescopes. Our primary and long-time collaborator on Skynet has been the "41-inch" reflecting telescope at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Thus far, we have used these various telescopes to refine the orbits of more than 15 asteroids and comets. We have also confirmed the resulting reduction in orbit-model uncertainties using Monte Carlo simulations and orbit visualizations, using Find_Orb and OrbitMaster software, respectively.Before any observatory site can be used for official orbit refinement projects, it must first become a trusted source of astrometry data for the MPC. We have therefore obtained Observatory Codes not only for our own WestRock Observatory (W22), but also for 3 Skynet telescopes that we may use in the future: Dark Sky Observatory in Boone, North Carolina (W38) Hume Observatory in Santa Rosa, California (U54) and Athabasca University Geophysical Observatory in Athabasca, Alberta, Canada (U96).

  10. Comparative Properties of Amazonian Oils Obtained by Different Extraction Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cláudio Galuppo Diniz

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense Camb., babaçu (Orbignya phalerata Mart., buriti (Mauritia flexuosa, and passion fruit (Passiflora edulis oils were studied to determine their antibacterial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities, as well as their total phenol and carotenoid contents. The fatty acid contents were determined by GC-MS. The three types of passion fruit oils studied were refined, cold pressed or extracted from seeds in a Soxhlet apparatus. The oils thus obtained showed differences in antioxidant activity and carotenoid content, but were similar in regard to total phenols. Buriti and pequi had the highest carotenoid contents, while refined and cold pressed passion fruit oil displayed the highest antioxidant activity. Pequi oil was the only oil to display antibacterial and cytotoxic activity.

  11. Science, technology and environmental demands: innovations in oil refining process; Ciencia, tecnologia e demandas ambientais: inovacoes nos processos de refino

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Azevedo, Adalberto Mantovani Martiniano de [Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP (Brazil). Inst. de Geociencias. Programa de Pos-graduacao do Departamento de Politica Cientifica e Tecnologica

    2003-07-01

    This paper consists in a survey about changes in oil refining technologies caused by an increase of external environmental restrictions, that create demands for innovations related to the reduction of environmental impacts in refining processes and products. The environmental restrictions considered in this paper include state regulation, like the control over solid and gas wastes and the control over levels of air pollutants on refined products. Another group of restrictions include market restrictions, mainly the restrictions for obtaining 'green' quality labels, like ISO 14000. The paper will show the main environmental restrictions for the Paulinia Refinery (REPLAN), and its reaction in introducing innovations in refining processes. Some aspects of the innovations observed will be described, like the kind of innovation (process or product), the institutions that created innovations and their resources, the knowledge fields applied, and another characteristics for the evaluation of environmental influence over the development on oil refining innovations. (author)

  12. 1991 worldwide refining and gas processing directory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1990-01-01

    This book ia an authority for immediate information on the industry. You can use it to find new business, analyze market trends, and to stay in touch with existing contacts while making new ones. The possibilities for business applications are numerous. Arranged by country, all listings in the directory include address, phone, fax and telex numbers, a description of the company's activities, names of key personnel and their titles, corporate headquarters, branch offices and plant sites. This newly revised edition lists more than 2000 companies and nearly 3000 branch offices and plant locations. This east-to-use reference also includes several of the most vital and informative surveys of the industry, including the U.S. Refining Survey, the Worldwide Construction Survey in Refining, Sulfur, Gas Processing and Related Fuels, the Worldwide Refining and Gas Processing Survey, the Worldwide Catalyst Report, and the U.S. and Canadian Lube and Wax Capacities Report from the National Petroleum Refiner's Association

  13. Radiation transport code with adaptive Mesh Refinement: acceleration techniques and applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Velarde, Pedro; Garcia-Fernaandez, Carlos; Portillo, David; Barbas, Alfonso

    2011-01-01

    We present a study of acceleration techniques for solving Sn radiation transport equations with Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR). Both DSA and TSA are considered, taking into account the influence of the interaction between different levels of the mesh structure and the order of approximation in angle. A Hybrid method is proposed in order to obtain better convergence rate and lower computer times. Some examples are presented relevant to ICF and X ray secondary sources. (author)

  14. Modified process for refining niobium by electron beam

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pinatti, D.G.; Takano, C.

    1982-01-01

    The experimental results, thermodynamic equilibrium and kinetic theory of the metal/gas interaction in refractory metals are reviewed. The adsorption and desorption of nitrogen, hydrogen and CO are reversible, whereas those of oxygen are irreversible, with adsorption of an oxygen atom and volatilisation of the metal oxide. Based upon this fact, a new electron beam refining technology is proposed for niobium, consisting of four points: preparation of an electrode by aluminothermic reduction; zone refining in the first melt; kinetic refining in subsequent melts and compact design of the refining plant. Experimental results from a 300 kW pilot plant were in complete agreement with the technology proposed, giving 2.4 times the productivity predicted by the conventional technology. (Author) [pt

  15. Grain refinement of AZ31 magnesium alloy by electromagnetic ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Low-frequency electromagnetic field; AZ31 magnesium alloy; Al4C3; grain refinement. Abstract. The effects of electromagnetic stirring and Al4C3 grain refiner on the grain refinement of semicontinuously cast AZ31 magnesium alloy were discussed in this investigation. The results indicate that electromagnetic stirring has an ...

  16. Refinement of RAIM via Implementation of Implicit Euler Method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Yoonhee; Kim, Han-Chul [Korea Institute of Nuclear and Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-10-15

    The first approach is a mechanistic approach which is used in LIRIC in which more than 200 reactions are modeled in detail. This approach enables to perform the detailed analysis. However, it requires huge computation burden. The other approach is a simplified model approach which is used in the IMOD, ASTEC/IODE, and etc. Recently, KINS has developed RAIM (Radio-Active Iodine chemistry Model) based on the simplified model approach. Since the numerical analysis module in RAIM is based on the explicit Euler method, there are major issues on the stability of the module. Therefore, implementation of a stable numerical method becomes essential. In this study, RAIM is refined via implementation of implicit Euler method in which the Newton method is used to find the solutions at each time step. The refined RAIM is tested by comparing to RAIM based on the explicit Euler method. In this paper, RAIM was refined by implementing the implicit Euler method. At each time step of the method in the refined RAIM, the reaction kinetics equations are solved by the Newton method in which elements of the Jacobian matrix are expressed analytically. With the results of OECD-BIP P10T2 test, the refined RAIM was compared to RAIM with the explicit Euler method. The refined RAIM shows better agreement with the experimental data than those from the explicit Euler method. For the rapid change of pH during the experiment, the refined RAIM gives more realistic changes in the concentrations of chemical species than those from the explicit Euler method. In addition, in terms of computing time, the refined RAIM shows comparable computing time to that with explicit Euler method. These comparisons are attributed to ⁓10 times larger time step size used in the implicit Euler method, even though computation burden at each time step in the refined RAIM is much higher than that of the explicit Euler method. Compared to the experimental data, the refined RAIM still shows discrepancy, which are attributed

  17. Refinement of RAIM via Implementation of Implicit Euler Method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Yoonhee; Kim, Han-Chul

    2016-01-01

    The first approach is a mechanistic approach which is used in LIRIC in which more than 200 reactions are modeled in detail. This approach enables to perform the detailed analysis. However, it requires huge computation burden. The other approach is a simplified model approach which is used in the IMOD, ASTEC/IODE, and etc. Recently, KINS has developed RAIM (Radio-Active Iodine chemistry Model) based on the simplified model approach. Since the numerical analysis module in RAIM is based on the explicit Euler method, there are major issues on the stability of the module. Therefore, implementation of a stable numerical method becomes essential. In this study, RAIM is refined via implementation of implicit Euler method in which the Newton method is used to find the solutions at each time step. The refined RAIM is tested by comparing to RAIM based on the explicit Euler method. In this paper, RAIM was refined by implementing the implicit Euler method. At each time step of the method in the refined RAIM, the reaction kinetics equations are solved by the Newton method in which elements of the Jacobian matrix are expressed analytically. With the results of OECD-BIP P10T2 test, the refined RAIM was compared to RAIM with the explicit Euler method. The refined RAIM shows better agreement with the experimental data than those from the explicit Euler method. For the rapid change of pH during the experiment, the refined RAIM gives more realistic changes in the concentrations of chemical species than those from the explicit Euler method. In addition, in terms of computing time, the refined RAIM shows comparable computing time to that with explicit Euler method. These comparisons are attributed to ⁓10 times larger time step size used in the implicit Euler method, even though computation burden at each time step in the refined RAIM is much higher than that of the explicit Euler method. Compared to the experimental data, the refined RAIM still shows discrepancy, which are attributed

  18. The European refining and distribution industry at the 2010 vista

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lacour, J.J.; Tessmer, G.; Ward, I.

    1998-01-01

    Oil company chairmen belonging to the AFTP, DGMK and IP associations met together to debate about the future of the European refining industry. The following topics were discussed: is it the end of the refining crisis? Which uncertainties will have to be met? What is the situation of petroleum products supply and demand? What are the consumers' expectations? How to face the environmental constraints? Which future for the refining activities in Europe? Seven round-tables took place with the following themes: the factors of uncertainty in the future of refining activities, the petroleum products supply and demand (automotive fuels, fuel oils, lubricants), the refining activities and the supply of consumers (service stations and supermarkets), the situation of the European petroleum policy, the European refining industry and the public regulations (development of more efficient environmental approaches), the impact of environmental constraints and the technical solutions, and the future of the refining industry. (J.S.)

  19. A novel non-uniform control vector parameterization approach with time grid refinement for flight level tracking optimal control problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Ping; Li, Guodong; Liu, Xinggao; Xiao, Long; Wang, Yalin; Yang, Chunhua; Gui, Weihua

    2018-02-01

    High quality control method is essential for the implementation of aircraft autopilot system. An optimal control problem model considering the safe aerodynamic envelop is therefore established to improve the control quality of aircraft flight level tracking. A novel non-uniform control vector parameterization (CVP) method with time grid refinement is then proposed for solving the optimal control problem. By introducing the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) analysis, an efficient time grid refinement approach is presented and an adaptive time grid is automatically obtained. With this refinement, the proposed method needs fewer optimization parameters to achieve better control quality when compared with uniform refinement CVP method, whereas the computational cost is lower. Two well-known flight level altitude tracking problems and one minimum time cost problem are tested as illustrations and the uniform refinement control vector parameterization method is adopted as the comparative base. Numerical results show that the proposed method achieves better performances in terms of optimization accuracy and computation cost; meanwhile, the control quality is efficiently improved. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Grain Refinement of Low Carbon Martensitic Steel by Heat Treatment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. V. Kolebina

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The low-carbon steels have good corrosion and technological properties. Hot deformation is the main operation in manufacturing the parts from these steels. So one of the important properties of the material is a property of plasticity. The grain size significantly influences on the ductility properties of steel. The grain size of steel depends on the chemical composition of the crystallization process, heat treatment, and steel machining. There are plenty methods to have grain refinement. However, taking into account the large size of the blanks for the hydro turbine parts, the thermal cycling is an advanced method of the grain refinement adaptable to streamlined production. This work experimentally studies the heat treatment influence on the microstructure of the low-carbon 01X13N04 alloy steel and proposes the optimal regime of the heat treatment to provide a significantly reduced grain size. L.M. Kleiner, N.P. Melnikov and I.N. Bogachyova’s works focused both on the microstructure of these steels and on the influence of its parameters on the mechanical properties. The paper focuses mainly on defining an optimal regime of the heat treatment for grain refinement. The phase composition of steel and temperature of phase transformation were defined by the theoretical analysis. The dilatometric experiment was done to determine the precise temperature of the phase transformations. The analysis and comparison of the experimental data with theoretical data and earlier studies have shown that the initial sample has residual stress and chemical heterogeneity. The influence of the heat treatment on the grain size was studied in detail. It is found that at temperatures above 950 ° C there is a high grain growth. It is determined that the optimal number of cycles is two. The postincreasing number of cycles does not cause further reducing grain size because of the accumulative recrystallization process. Based on the results obtained, the thermal cycling

  1. Zone refining high-purity germanium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hubbard, G.S.; Haller, E.E.; Hansen, W.L.

    1977-10-01

    The effects of various parameters on germanium purification by zone refining have been examined. These parameters include the germanium container and container coatings, ambient gas and other operating conditions. Four methods of refining are presented which reproducibly yield 3.5 kg germanium ingots from which high purity (vertical barN/sub A/ - N/sub D/vertical bar less than or equal to2 x 10 10 cm -3 ) single crystals can be grown. A qualitative model involving binary and ternary complexes of Si, O, B, and Al is shown to account for the behavior of impurities at these low concentrations

  2. Refining processes of selected copper alloys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Rzadkosz

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available The analysis of the refining effectiveness of the liquid copper and selected copper alloys by various micro additions and special refiningsubstances – was performed. Examinations of an influence of purifying, modifying and deoxidation operations performed in a metal bath on the properties of certain selected alloys based on copper matrix - were made. Refining substances, protecting-purifying slag, deoxidation and modifying substances containing micro additions of such elements as: zirconium, boron, phosphor, sodium, lithium, or their compounds introduced in order to change micro structures and properties of alloys, were applied in examinations. A special attention was directed to macro and micro structures of alloys, their tensile and elongation strength and hot-cracks sensitivity. Refining effects were estimated by comparing the effectiveness of micro structure changes with property changes of copper and its selected alloys from the group of tin bronzes.

  3. Extent of Microbial Contamination of Refined and Unrefined Vegetable oils sold in South-west Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oluwafemi Flora

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Oils constitute a major source of plant-based protein. A major limitation to optimal oil consumption in sub-tropical region is fungal infestation and consequent mycotoxin contamination. Ten refined and eight unrefined vegetable oils were randomly purchase from open markets and screened for microbial contamination using standard microbial procedures. Twenty six fungi isolates were obtained from the vegetable oil samples, the isolates were identified as Aspergillus fumigatus (43.0%, Mucor (17.9%, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (10.7%, Aspergillus niger (7.1%, Aspergillus flavus (7.1%, Penicillium spp (7.1%, Aspergillus oryzae (3.6%, Mucor (17.9% and Rhizopus spp (3.6%. Five out of the ten refined vegetable oil samples had no fungal contamination. A. flavus and A. oryzae were absent in all the refined oil samples while A. niger was absent in all the unrefined oil samples. Isolation of mycotoxigenic fungi such as Aspergillus spp. is of vital importance in the food industry. Education and training of processors and consumers is recommended.

  4. Adaptive mesh refinement for shocks and material interfaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dai, William Wenlong [Los Alamos National Laboratory

    2010-01-01

    There are three kinds of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) in structured meshes. Block-based AMR sometimes over refines meshes. Cell-based AMR treats cells cell by cell and thus loses the advantage of the nature of structured meshes. Patch-based AMR is intended to combine advantages of block- and cell-based AMR, i.e., the nature of structured meshes and sharp regions of refinement. But, patch-based AMR has its own difficulties. For example, patch-based AMR typically cannot preserve symmetries of physics problems. In this paper, we will present an approach for a patch-based AMR for hydrodynamics simulations. The approach consists of clustering, symmetry preserving, mesh continuity, flux correction, communications, management of patches, and load balance. The special features of this patch-based AMR include symmetry preserving, efficiency of refinement across shock fronts and material interfaces, special implementation of flux correction, and patch management in parallel computing environments. To demonstrate the capability of the AMR framework, we will show both two- and three-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations with many levels of refinement.

  5. Chinese refining capacity for Canadian heavy oil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruce, G.W.

    2006-01-01

    This paper discussed China's refining capacity in relation to exports of Canadian heavy oil. Demand for oil is increasing throughout the world, and China is expected to consume 25 per cent of the projected yearly oil supplies. Alberta currently has an estimated 174 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen, and produces 1.06 million barrels per day. Production is expected to increase to 4.5 million barrels per day by the year 2020. Currently bitumen blends are refined and diluted with naphtha and sweet synthetic crude oil. Bitumen is a challenging feedstock for refineries, and requires thermal production methods or gasification processes. Primary conversion into sour synthetic crude is typically followed by hydrocracking and further refining into finished petroleum products. There are currently 50 refineries in China with a 7.4 million barrel per day capacity. Coastal refineries using imported crude oil have a 4 million barrel per day capacity. New facilities are being constructed and existing plants are being upgraded in order to process heavier and more sour crude oils. However, current refining capabilities in Chinese refineries have a limited ability for resid conversion. It was concluded that while China has a refining infrastructure, only refineries on the coast will use oil sands-derived feedstocks. However, there are currently opportunities to design refineries to match future feedstocks. tabs., figs

  6. On macromolecular refinement at subatomic resolution with interatomic scatterers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Afonine, Pavel V., E-mail: pafonine@lbl.gov; Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.; Adams, Paul D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, BLDG 64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States); Lunin, Vladimir Y. [Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 142290 (Russian Federation); Urzhumtsev, Alexandre [IGMBC, 1 Rue L. Fries, 67404 Illkirch and IBMC, 15 Rue R. Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg (France); Faculty of Sciences, Nancy University, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (France); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, BLDG 64R0121, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

    2007-11-01

    Modelling deformation electron density using interatomic scatters is simpler than multipolar methods, produces comparable results at subatomic resolution and can easily be applied to macromolecules. A study of the accurate electron-density distribution in molecular crystals at subatomic resolution (better than ∼1.0 Å) requires more detailed models than those based on independent spherical atoms. A tool that is conventionally used in small-molecule crystallography is the multipolar model. Even at upper resolution limits of 0.8–1.0 Å, the number of experimental data is insufficient for full multipolar model refinement. As an alternative, a simpler model composed of conventional independent spherical atoms augmented by additional scatterers to model bonding effects has been proposed. Refinement of these mixed models for several benchmark data sets gave results that were comparable in quality with the results of multipolar refinement and superior to those for conventional models. Applications to several data sets of both small molecules and macromolecules are shown. These refinements were performed using the general-purpose macromolecular refinement module phenix.refine of the PHENIX package.

  7. Review of Grain Refinement of Cast Metals Through Inoculation: Theories and Developments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhilin

    2017-10-01

    The inoculation method of grain refinement is widely used in research and industry. Because of its commercial and engineering importance, extensive research on the mechanisms/theories of grain refinement and development of effective grain refiners for diverse cast metals/alloys has been conducted. In 1999, Easton and St. John reviewed the mechanisms of grain refinement of cast Al alloys. Since then, grain refinement in alloys of Al, Mg, Fe, Ti, Cu, and Zn has evolved a lot. However, there is still no full consensus on the mechanisms/theories of grain refinement. Moreover, some new grain refiners developed based on the theories do not ensure efficient grain refinement. Thus, the factors that contribute to grain refinement are still not fully understood. Clarification of the prerequisite issues that occur in grain refinement is required using recent theories. This review covers multiple metals/alloys and developments in grain refinement from the last twenty years. The characteristics of effective grain refiners are considered from four perspectives: effective particle/matrix wetting configuration, sufficiently powerful segregating elements, preferential crystallographic matching, and geometrical features of effective nucleants. Then, recent mechanisms/theories on the grain refinement of cast metals/alloys are reviewed, including the peritectic-related, hypernucleation, inert nucleant, and constitutional supercooling-driven theories. Further, developments of deterministic and probabilistic modeling and nucleation crystallography in the grain refinement of cast metals are reviewed. Finally, the latest progress in the grain refinement of cast Zn and its alloys is described, and future work on grain refinement is summarized.

  8. Total antioxidant content of alternatives to refined sugar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Katherine M; Carlsen, Monica H; Blomhoff, Rune

    2009-01-01

    Oxidative damage is implicated in the etiology of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other degenerative disorders. Recent nutritional research has focused on the antioxidant potential of foods, while current dietary recommendations are to increase the intake of antioxidant-rich foods rather than supplement specific nutrients. Many alternatives to refined sugar are available, including raw cane sugar, plant saps/syrups (eg, maple syrup, agave nectar), molasses, honey, and fruit sugars (eg, date sugar). Unrefined sweeteners were hypothesized to contain higher levels of antioxidants, similar to the contrast between whole and refined grain products. To compare the total antioxidant content of natural sweeteners as alternatives to refined sugar. The ferric-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) assay was used to estimate total antioxidant capacity. Major brands of 12 types of sweeteners as well as refined white sugar and corn syrup were sampled from retail outlets in the United States. Substantial differences in total antioxidant content of different sweeteners were found. Refined sugar, corn syrup, and agave nectar contained minimal antioxidant activity (sugar had a higher FRAP (0.1 mmol/100 g). Dark and blackstrap molasses had the highest FRAP (4.6 to 4.9 mmol/100 g), while maple syrup, brown sugar, and honey showed intermediate antioxidant capacity (0.2 to 0.7 mmol FRAP/100 g). Based on an average intake of 130 g/day refined sugars and the antioxidant activity measured in typical diets, substituting alternative sweeteners could increase antioxidant intake an average of 2.6 mmol/day, similar to the amount found in a serving of berries or nuts. Many readily available alternatives to refined sugar offer the potential benefit of antioxidant activity.

  9. The critical effect of Fe on the grain refinement of aluminium via Al-5Ti-1B addition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Y; Ma, N

    2016-01-01

    The influence of Fe on the nucleation potency of TiB 2 particles was investigated by employing grain refinement of high purity aluminium in this study. Experiment results showed that without Fe, high purity aluminium cannot be refined by 0.8wt.% addition of Al-5Ti-1B. However, high purity aluminium containing 0.08wt.% Fe can be refined effectively by 0.2wt.% addition of Al-5Ti-1B, its grain size was about 206µm in diameter. Fine equiaxed grains of about 153µm in diameter can be obtained for high purity aluminium containing 0.08wt.% Fe and 0.006wt.% Ti. Grain refinement mechanism should include nucleation and dendrite remelting and multiplication. Both nucleation and dendrite remelting and multiplication played essential role on the grain refinement of aluminium. The effect of Fe was linked to increase active nuclei by segregation on TiB 2 surface and then to promote nucleation of α-Al. The performance of Ti was to enhance the dendrite remelting and multiplication by forming small conglomeration zones of Ti atoms concentrated around TiB 2 particles. (paper)

  10. Investment in exploration-production and refining 2015

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maisonnier, G.; Hureau, G.; Serbutoviez, S.; Silva, C.

    2016-01-01

    IFPEN analyses in this study the 2015 evolution of global investment in the field of exploration-production and refining: - Changes in oil and gas prices; - Investment in Exploration/Production: the end of an upward cycle; - Drilling and the global drilling market, upstream activities and markets; - 2015, a breath of fresh air for refining

  11. Biomolecular structure refinement using the GROMOS simulation software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmid, Nathan; Allison, Jane R.; Dolenc, Jožica; Eichenberger, Andreas P.; Kunz, Anna-Pitschna E.; Gunsteren, Wilfred F. van

    2011-01-01

    For the understanding of cellular processes the molecular structure of biomolecules has to be accurately determined. Initial models can be significantly improved by structure refinement techniques. Here, we present the refinement methods and analysis techniques implemented in the GROMOS software for biomolecular simulation. The methodology and some implementation details of the computation of NMR NOE data, 3 J-couplings and residual dipolar couplings, X-ray scattering intensities from crystals and solutions and neutron scattering intensities used in GROMOS is described and refinement strategies and concepts are discussed using example applications. The GROMOS software allows structure refinement combining different types of experimental data with different types of restraining functions, while using a variety of methods to enhance conformational searching and sampling and the thermodynamically calibrated GROMOS force field for biomolecular simulation.

  12. Biomolecular structure refinement using the GROMOS simulation software

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schmid, Nathan; Allison, Jane R.; Dolenc, Jozica; Eichenberger, Andreas P.; Kunz, Anna-Pitschna E.; Gunsteren, Wilfred F. van, E-mail: wfvgn@igc.phys.chem.ethz.ch [Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry (Switzerland)

    2011-11-15

    For the understanding of cellular processes the molecular structure of biomolecules has to be accurately determined. Initial models can be significantly improved by structure refinement techniques. Here, we present the refinement methods and analysis techniques implemented in the GROMOS software for biomolecular simulation. The methodology and some implementation details of the computation of NMR NOE data, {sup 3}J-couplings and residual dipolar couplings, X-ray scattering intensities from crystals and solutions and neutron scattering intensities used in GROMOS is described and refinement strategies and concepts are discussed using example applications. The GROMOS software allows structure refinement combining different types of experimental data with different types of restraining functions, while using a variety of methods to enhance conformational searching and sampling and the thermodynamically calibrated GROMOS force field for biomolecular simulation.

  13. Pakistan stepping up expansion of refining, transportation sectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that Pakistan is taking steps to speed expansion of its refining and oil transportation infrastructure. While the country has made significant progress toward energy self-efficiency by boosting oil and gas production it still must modernize and expand an aging, inadequate refining sector to meet rapidly growing demand for refined products. Pakistan's government has disclosed plans to build two refineries in the country, one at Rawalpindi near a string of recent oil discoveries, the other somewhere in the southern part of the country, likely Karachi. At the same time, efforts are proceeding to upgrade Pakistan's refineries. In addition, Pakistani state companies continue to press joint ventures in refining and marketing with foreign companies and expand downstream ties with neighbors that are key oil and gas exporters

  14. New Process for Grain Refinement of Aluminum. Final Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dr. Joseph A. Megy

    2000-09-22

    A new method of grain refining aluminum involving in-situ formation of boride nuclei in molten aluminum just prior to casting has been developed in the subject DOE program over the last thirty months by a team consisting of JDC, Inc., Alcoa Technical Center, GRAS, Inc., Touchstone Labs, and GKS Engineering Services. The Manufacturing process to make boron trichloride for grain refining is much simpler than preparing conventional grain refiners, with attendant environmental, capital, and energy savings. The manufacture of boride grain refining nuclei using the fy-Gem process avoids clusters, salt and oxide inclusions that cause quality problems in aluminum today.

  15. Obtaining of ceramics biphasic dense and porous

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pallone, E.M.J.A.; Rigo, E.C.S.; Fraga, A.F.

    2010-01-01

    Among the bioceramic hydroxyapatite (HAP) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) are materials commonly used in biomedical field. Their combined properties result in a material with absorbable and at the same time with bioactive surface. Called biphasic ceramics such materials respond more quickly when exposed to physiological environment. In this work, powders of HAP/beta-TCP were obtained by chemical precipitation. After obtaining the post-phase was added at a ratio of 0, 15% and 30w% aqueous solutions of corn starch in order to obtain porous bodies. After mixing the resulting solutions were dried, resigned in tablet form and sintered at 1300 deg C. The initial powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction with Rietveld refinement to quantify the phases present. Bodies-of-evidence has been characterized by calculating the bulk density, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy and diametral compression. (author)

  16. Local mesh refinement for incompressible fluid flow with free surfaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Terasaka, H.; Kajiwara, H.; Ogura, K. [Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japan)] [and others

    1995-09-01

    A new local mesh refinement (LMR) technique has been developed and applied to incompressible fluid flows with free surface boundaries. The LMR method embeds patches of fine grid in arbitrary regions of interest. Hence, more accurate solutions can be obtained with a lower number of computational cells. This method is very suitable for the simulation of free surface movements because free surface flow problems generally require a finer computational grid to obtain adequate results. By using this technique, one can place finer grids only near the surfaces, and therefore greatly reduce the total number of cells and computational costs. This paper introduces LMR3D, a three-dimensional incompressible flow analysis code. Numerical examples calculated with the code demonstrate well the advantages of the LMR method.

  17. Hydroprocessing and premium II refinery: a new refining philosophy for an era of clean fuels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Delgaudio, Caio Veiga Penna; Pinotti, Rafael [Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2012-07-01

    This paper discusses a brief history of Brazilian's emission and fuel specifications, since the appearance of PROCONVE until the late stages of the program for vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel. The development of the Brazilian refining is analyzed taking into account the emission and specification evolutions, and it can be perceived that the system's complexity increases while new constraints are imposed by the regulator. This aspect is even more apparent when the detailed scheme of the Premium II refinery and its main unit, the catalytic hydrocracker (HCC, which has not yet been part of PETROBRAS' refining park and will appear in three of the four new refineries of the company) is described. The new projects represent the culmination of the intensive use of energy and raw material for obtaining the products with the new specifications. There is a price for this development, both in investments and increased operating costs due to greater complexity of the system. To adapt to the era of clean fuels, refiners will present a series of challenges that will lead them to seek for more efficient processes and operational excellence (and ongoing efforts to reduce their emissions) in order to ensure positive refining margins. (author)

  18. A QM/MM refinement of an experimental DNA structure with metal-mediated base pairs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumbhar, Sadhana; Johannsen, Silke; Sigel, Roland K O; Waller, Mark P; Müller, Jens

    2013-10-01

    A series of hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations was performed on models of a DNA duplex with artificial silver(I)-mediated imidazole base pairs. The optimized structures were compared to the original experimental NMR structure (Nat. Chem. 2 (2010) 229-234). The metal⋯metal distances are significantly shorter (~0.5Å) in the QM/MM model than in the original NMR structure. As a result, argentophilic interactions are feasible between the silver(I) ions of neighboring metal-mediated base pairs. Using the computationally determined metal⋯metal distances, a re-refined NMR solution structure of the DNA duplex was obtained. In this new NMR structure, all experimental constraints remain fulfilled. The new NMR structure shows less deviation from the regular B-type conformation than the original one. This investigation shows that the application of QM/MM models to generate additional constraints to be used during NMR structural refinements represents an elegant approach to obtaining high-resolution NMR structures. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Method of optimization of the natural gas refining process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sadykh-Zade, E.S.; Bagirov, A.A.; Mardakhayev, I.M.; Razamat, M.S.; Tagiyev, V.G.

    1980-01-01

    The SATUM (automatic control system of technical operations) system introduced at the Shatlyk field should assure good quality of gas refining. In order to optimize the natural gas refining processes and experimental-analytical method is used in compiling the mathematical descriptions. The program, compiled in Fortran language, in addition to parameters of optimal conditions gives information on the yield of concentrate and water, concentration and consumption of DEG, composition and characteristics of the gas and condensate. The algorithm for calculating optimum engineering conditions of gas refining is proposed to be used in ''advice'' mode, and also for monitoring progress of the gas refining process.

  20. Optimal algebraic multilevel preconditioning for local refinement along a line

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Margenov, S.D.; Maubach, J.M.L.

    1995-01-01

    The application of some recently proposed algebraic multilevel methods for the solution of two-dimensional finite element problems on nonuniform meshes is studied. The locally refined meshes are created by the newest vertex mesh refinement method. After the introduction of this refinement technique

  1. RBT—A Tool for Building Refined Buneman Trees

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Besenbacher, Søren; Mailund; Westh-Nielsen, Lasse

    2005-01-01

    We have developed a tool implementing an efficient algorithm for refined Buneman tree reconstruction. The algorithm—which has the same complexity as the neighbour-joining method and the (plain) Buneman tree construction—enables refined Buneman tree reconstruction on large taxa sets....

  2. 38 CFR 17.65 - Approvals and provisional approvals of community residential care facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... approvals of community residential care facilities. 17.65 Section 17.65 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Community Residential Care § 17.65 Approvals and provisional approvals of community residential care facilities. (a) An approval of a facility meeting all of...

  3. India's refining prospects linked to economic growth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, E.

    1996-01-01

    International investors assess refining ventures in India the same way they do comparable projects elsewhere in the world: according to their expectations about investment returns. By that standard, India's appeal is mixed, although its need for some measure of additional refining capacity seems certain. The success of future refinery investments will depend heavily on the government's commitment to policies allowing the economy to grow faster than the population. Unless accompanied by economic growth, expected increases in the population will not automatically raise demand for petroleum products. Decisions about investments in India's refining sector, therefore, must carefully weigh market fundamentals, the business environment, and likely investment performance. This paper reviews the market for the various products and predicts new economic trends

  4. Effect of Grain Refinement and Cooling Rate on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Secondary Al-Si-Cu Alloys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timelli, Giulio; Camicia, Giordano; Ferraro, Stefano

    2014-02-01

    The effect of AlTi5B1 grain refinement and different solidification rates on metallurgical and mechanical properties of a secondary AlSi7Cu3Mg alloy is reported. While the Ti content ranges from 0.04 up to 0.225 wt.%, the cooling rate varies between 0.1 and 5.5 °C/s. Metallographic and thermal analysis techniques have been used to quantitatively examine the macro- and microstructural changes occurring with grain refiner addition at various cooling rates. The results indicate that a small AlTi5B1 addition produces the greatest refinement, while no significant reduction of grain size is obtained with a great amount of grain refiner. On increasing the cooling rate, a lower amount of AlTi5B1 master alloy is necessary to produce a uniform grain size throughout the casting. The combined addition of AlTi5B1 and Sr does not produce any reciprocal interaction or effect on primary α-Al and eutectic solidification. The grain refinement improves the plastic behavior of the alloy and increases the reliability of castings, as evidenced by the Weibull statistics.

  5. Refining intra-protein contact prediction by graph analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eyal Eran

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Accurate prediction of intra-protein residue contacts from sequence information will allow the prediction of protein structures. Basic predictions of such specific contacts can be further refined by jointly analyzing predicted contacts, and by adding information on the relative positions of contacts in the protein primary sequence. Results We introduce a method for graph analysis refinement of intra-protein contacts, termed GARP. Our previously presented intra-contact prediction method by means of pair-to-pair substitution matrix (P2PConPred was used to test the GARP method. In our approach, the top contact predictions obtained by a basic prediction method were used as edges to create a weighted graph. The edges were scored by a mutual clustering coefficient that identifies highly connected graph regions, and by the density of edges between the sequence regions of the edge nodes. A test set of 57 proteins with known structures was used to determine contacts. GARP improves the accuracy of the P2PConPred basic prediction method in whole proteins from 12% to 18%. Conclusion Using a simple approach we increased the contact prediction accuracy of a basic method by 1.5 times. Our graph approach is simple to implement, can be used with various basic prediction methods, and can provide input for further downstream analyses.

  6. Technology status in support of refined technical baseline for the Spent Nuclear Fuel project. Revision 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Puigh, R.J.; Toffer, H.; Heard, F.J.; Irvin, J.J.; Cooper, T.D.

    1995-10-20

    The Spent Nuclear Fuel Project (SNFP) has undertaken technology acquisition activities focused on supporting the technical basis for the removal of the N Reactor fuel from the K Basins to an interim storage facility. The purpose of these technology acquisition activities has been to identify technology issues impacting design or safety approval, to establish the strategy for obtaining the necessary information through either existing project activities, or the assignment of new work. A set of specific path options has been identified for each major action proposed for placing the N Reactor fuel into a ``stabilized`` form for interim storage as part of this refined technical basis. This report summarizes the status of technology information acquisition as it relates to key decisions impacting the selection of specific path options. The following specific categories were chosen to characterize and partition the technology information status: hydride issues and ignition, corrosion, hydrogen generation, drying and conditioning, thermal performance, criticality and materials accountability, canister/fuel particulate behavior, and MCO integrity. This report represents a preliminary assessment of the technology information supporting the SNFP. As our understanding of the N Reactor fuel performance develops the technology information supporting the SNFP will be updated and documented in later revisions to this report. Revision 1 represents the incorporation of peer review comments into the original document. The substantive evolution in our understanding of the technical status for the SNFP (except section 3) since July 1995 have not been incorporated into this revision.

  7. Technology status in support of refined technical baseline for the Spent Nuclear Fuel project. Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Puigh, R.J.; Toffer, H.; Heard, F.J.; Irvin, J.J.; Cooper, T.D.

    1995-01-01

    The Spent Nuclear Fuel Project (SNFP) has undertaken technology acquisition activities focused on supporting the technical basis for the removal of the N Reactor fuel from the K Basins to an interim storage facility. The purpose of these technology acquisition activities has been to identify technology issues impacting design or safety approval, to establish the strategy for obtaining the necessary information through either existing project activities, or the assignment of new work. A set of specific path options has been identified for each major action proposed for placing the N Reactor fuel into a ''stabilized'' form for interim storage as part of this refined technical basis. This report summarizes the status of technology information acquisition as it relates to key decisions impacting the selection of specific path options. The following specific categories were chosen to characterize and partition the technology information status: hydride issues and ignition, corrosion, hydrogen generation, drying and conditioning, thermal performance, criticality and materials accountability, canister/fuel particulate behavior, and MCO integrity. This report represents a preliminary assessment of the technology information supporting the SNFP. As our understanding of the N Reactor fuel performance develops the technology information supporting the SNFP will be updated and documented in later revisions to this report. Revision 1 represents the incorporation of peer review comments into the original document. The substantive evolution in our understanding of the technical status for the SNFP (except section 3) since July 1995 have not been incorporated into this revision

  8. Refinement-Animation for Event-B - Towards a Method of Validation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hallerstede, Stefan; Leuschel, Michael; Plagge, Daniel

    2010-01-01

    We provide a detailed description of refinement in Event-B, both as a contribution in itself and as a foundation for the approach to simultaneous animation of multiple levels of refinement that we propose. We present an algorithm for simultaneous multi-level animation of refinement, and show how ...

  9. Cleaning Data with OpenRefine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seth van Hooland

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Duplicate records, empty values and inconsistent formats are phenomena we should be prepared to deal with when using historical data sets. This lesson will teach you how to discover inconsistencies in data contained within a spreadsheet or a database. As we increasingly share, aggregate and reuse data on the web, historians will need to respond to data quality issues which inevitably pop up. Using a program called OpenRefine, you will be able to easily identify systematic errors such as blank cells, duplicates, spelling inconsistencies, etc. OpenRefine not only allows you to quickly diagnose the accuracy of your data, but also to act upon certain errors in an automated manner.

  10. Outlook for Canadian refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boje, G.

    1998-01-01

    The petroleum supply and demand balance was discussed and a comparison between Canadian and U.S. refineries was provided. The impact of changing product specifications on the petroleum industry was also discussed. The major changes include sulphur reductions in gasoline, benzene and MMT additives. These changes have been made in an effort to satisfy environmental needs. Geographic margin variations in refineries between east and west were reviewed. An overview of findings from the Solomon Refining Study of Canadian and American refineries, which has been very complimentary of the Canadian refining industry, was provided. From this writer's point of view refinery utilization has improved but there is a threat from increasing efficiency of US competitors. Environmental issues will continue to impact upon the industry and while the chances for making economic returns on investment are good for the years ahead, it will be a challenge to maintain profitability

  11. Partner approval and intention to use contraception among Zanzibari women presenting for post-abortion care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esber, Allahna; Foraker, Randi E; Hemed, Maryam; Norris, Alison

    2014-07-01

    We examined the effect of partner approval of contraception on intention to use contraception among women obtaining post-abortion care in Zanzibar. Our data source was a 2010 survey of 193 women obtaining post-abortion care at a large public hospital in Zanzibar. We used multivariable logistic regression analysis to assess associations between partner approval and intention to use contraception. Overall, 23% of participants had used a contraceptive method in the past, and 66% reported intending to use contraception in the future. We found that partner approval of contraception and ever having used contraception in the past were each associated with intending to use contraception in the future. In the multivariable model, adjusting for past contraception use, partner approval of contraception was associated with 20 times the odds of intending to use contraception (odds ratio, 20.25; 95% confidence interval, 8.45-48.56). We found a strong association between partner approval and intention to use contraception. Efforts to support contraceptive use must include both male and female partners. Public health and educational efforts to increase contraceptive use must include men and be targeted to both male and female partners. Given that male partners are often not present when women obtain health care, creative efforts will be required to meet men in community settings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Oil refining in U.S. foreign-trade zones

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Powell, S.J.; Potter, T.J.

    1991-01-01

    With the crude-oil import supply being as inexpensive as it is today, relative to domestic supply, many independents have been sourcing their crude-oil needs from abroad and have found it an opportune time to step up their level of refining activity. To further enhance their competitive position with respect to foreign refineries, certain domestic refiners have discovered the operational benefits and savings that result from having a refinery designated as a foreign-trade zone (FTZ) under the Foreign-Trade Zones Act of 1934, as amended. This paper examines the history and use of foreign-trade subzones for refining activities

  13. English-Chinese oil refining dictionary. [English-Chinese

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chou, P; Zing, Z [eds.

    1979-01-01

    The dictionary is a collection of many disciplines but specialized in the terminology related to petroleum refining. It contains terms in areas such as refining, factory equipment and installation, petroleum products and test analysis, and instrument automation. It also contains terms in areas of petrochemistry, oil storage and transport, computer technology, and environmental protection. The total number of terms collected was approximately 53,000.

  14. Grain size refinement in nanocrystalline Hitperm-type glass-coated microwires

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Talaat, A.; Val, J.J. del; Zhukova, V.; Ipatov, M.; Klein, P.; Varga, R.; González, J.; Churyukanova, M.; Zhukov, A.

    2016-01-01

    We present a new-Fe 38.5 Co 38.5 B 18 Mo 4 Cu 1 Hitperm glass-coated microwires obtained by Taylor-Ulitovsky technique with nanocrystalline structure consisting of about 23 nm of BCC α-FeCo and an amorphous precursors in as-prepared samples. Annealing resulted in a considerable decrease of such nano-grains down to (11 nm). Obtained results are discussed in terms of the stress diffusion of limited crystalline growth and the chemical composition. Rectangular hysteresis loops have been observed on all annealed samples that are necessary conditions to obtain fast domain wall propagation. An enhancement of the domain wall velocity as well as mobility after annealing has been obtained due to the structural relaxation of such grains with positive magnetostriction. These structure benefits found in the nanocrystalline Hitperm glass-coated microwires are promising for developing optimal magnetic properties. - Highlights: • Grains size refinement upon annealing. • Enhancement of the domain wall velocity as well as mobility after annealing. • Nanocrystalline structure in as-prepared microwires.

  15. Quantity, size and distribution of borides for aluminium grain refinement by neutron-induced autoradiography (NIAR). Pt. 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rachlitz, R.; Gaertner, S.; Holze, J.; Krumnacker, M.

    1990-01-01

    Al-Ti-B grain refiners improve the cast structure of aluminium and its alloys, but also cause problems related to the great hardness of the borides and their tendency to agglomerate and settle. Accurate information about the distribution, quantity and size of the TiB 2 particles is needed if material properties are to be improved and the quantity of additives minimized. This information is obtained mostly by NIAR. In laboratory-scale tests Al 99.8 and Al 99.5 were refined using different master alloys added in various quantities. In all cases the commercial master alloy gave the best refining effect. Besides boride particle size distribution and the presence of nuclei and nucleus stabilizers, morphological properties (duplex particles) are obviously of essential importance. It has been demonstrated that the TiB 2 size distribution values determined by NIAR are comparable with those established by optical microscopy measurements. (orig.) [de

  16. Contextual Distance Refining for Image Retrieval

    KAUST Repository

    Islam, Almasri

    2014-01-01

    Recently, a number of methods have been proposed to improve image retrieval accuracy by capturing context information. These methods try to compensate for the fact that a visually less similar image might be more relevant because it depicts the same object. We propose a new quick method for refining any pairwise distance metric, it works by iteratively discovering the object in the image from the most similar images, and then refine the distance metric accordingly. Test show that our technique improves over the state of art in terms of accuracy over the MPEG7 dataset.

  17. Contextual Distance Refining for Image Retrieval

    KAUST Repository

    Islam, Almasri

    2014-09-16

    Recently, a number of methods have been proposed to improve image retrieval accuracy by capturing context information. These methods try to compensate for the fact that a visually less similar image might be more relevant because it depicts the same object. We propose a new quick method for refining any pairwise distance metric, it works by iteratively discovering the object in the image from the most similar images, and then refine the distance metric accordingly. Test show that our technique improves over the state of art in terms of accuracy over the MPEG7 dataset.

  18. Refinement in Z and Object-Z foundations and advanced applications

    CERN Document Server

    Derrick, John

    2013-01-01

    Refinement is one of the cornerstones of the formal approach to software engineering, and its use in various domains has led to research on new applications and generalisation. This book brings together this important research in one volume, with the addition of examples drawn from different application areas. It covers four main themes:Data refinement and its application to ZGeneralisations of refinement that change the interface and atomicity of operationsRefinement in Object-ZModelling state and behaviour by combining Object-Z with CSPRefinement in Z and Object-Z: Foundations and Advanced A

  19. Singapore refiners in midst of huge construction campaign

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Land, R.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that Singapore's downstream capacity continues to mushroom. Singapore refiners, upbeat about long term prospects for petroleum products demand in the Asia-Pacific region, and are pressing plans to boost processing capacity. Their plans go beyond capacity expansions. They are proceeding with projects to upgrade refineries to emphasize production of higher value products and to further integrate refining capabilities wit the region's petrochemical industry. Planned expansion and upgrading projects at Singapore refineries call for outlays of more than $1 billion to boost total capacity to about 1.1 million b/d in 1993 and 1.27 million b/d by 1995. That would be the highest level since the mid-1980s, when refiners such as Shell Singapore cut capacity amid an oil glut. Singapore refineries currently are running at effective full capacity of 1.04 million b/d. Meanwhile, Singapore refiners are aggressively courting customers in the Indochina subcontinent, where long isolated centrally planned economies are turning gradually to free markets

  20. Directions in refining and upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dawson, B.; Parker, R. J.; Flint, L.

    1997-01-01

    The expansion of heavy oil transportation, marketing and refining facilities over the past two decades have been reviewed to show the strides that several Canadian refiners have taken to build up the facilities required to process synthetic crude oil (SCO). Key points made at a conference, convened by the National Centre for Upgrading Technology (NCUT), held in Edmonton during September 1997 to discuss current and future directions in the refining and marketing of heavy oil, bitumen and SCO, were summarized. Among the key points mentioned were: (1) the high entry barriers faced by centralized upgraders, (2) the advantages of integrating SCO or heavy oil production with downstream refining, (3) the stiff competition from Venezuela and Mexico that both SCO and heavy oil will face in the U.S. PADD II market, (4) the differences between Canadian refiners who have profited from hydrocracking and are better able to handle coker-based SCO, and American refiners who rely chiefly on catalytic cracking and are less able to process the highly aromatic SCO, and (5) the disproportionate cost in the upgrading process represented by the conversion of asphaltenes. Challenges and opportunities for key stakeholders, i.e. producers, refiners, marketers and technology licensors also received much attention at the Edmonton conference

  1. 30 CFR 208.4 - Royalty oil sales to eligible refiners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Royalty oil sales to eligible refiners. 208.4... MANAGEMENT SALE OF FEDERAL ROYALTY OIL General Provisions § 208.4 Royalty oil sales to eligible refiners. (a... and defense. The Secretary will review these items and will determine whether eligible refiners have...

  2. Refinement of the ferri and paramagnetic phases of magnetite measured by neutron multiple diffraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mazzochi, V.L.; Parente, C.B.R.

    1989-10-01

    Structural parameters of the ferri and paramagnetic phases of magnetite have been refined from neutron multiple diffraction data. Experimental patterns were obtained by measuring the III primary reflection of a natural single crystal of this compound, at room temperature for the ferrimagnetic phase and 703 0 C for the paramagnetic phase. Theoretical multiple diffraction patterns for both phases have been calculated by the program MULTI which uses the iterative method. In this method intensities are caluclated as Taylor series expansions summed up to a order sufficient for a good approximation. A step by step process has been used in the refinements similarly to the parameter-shift method. Final values for the discrepancy factor found for the ferri and paramagnetic phases were R = 3.96% and R = 3.46%, respectively. (author) [pt

  3. Probing the accuracy and precision of Hirshfeld atom refinement with HARt interfaced with Olex2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fugel, Malte; Jayatilaka, Dylan; Hupf, Emanuel; Overgaard, Jacob; Hathwar, Venkatesha R; Macchi, Piero; Turner, Michael J; Howard, Judith A K; Dolomanov, Oleg V; Puschmann, Horst; Iversen, Bo B; Bürgi, Hans-Beat; Grabowsky, Simon

    2018-01-01

    Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR) is a novel X-ray structure refinement technique that employs aspherical atomic scattering factors obtained from stockholder partitioning of a theoretically determined tailor-made static electron density. HAR overcomes many of the known limitations of independent atom modelling (IAM), such as too short element-hydrogen distances, r ( X -H), or too large atomic displacement parameters (ADPs). This study probes the accuracy and precision of anisotropic hydrogen and non-hydrogen ADPs and of r ( X -H) values obtained from HAR. These quantities are compared and found to agree with those obtained from (i) accurate neutron diffraction data measured at the same temperatures as the X-ray data and (ii) multipole modelling (MM), an established alternative method for interpreting X-ray diffraction data with the help of aspherical atomic scattering factors. Results are presented for three chemically different systems: the aromatic hydro-carbon rubrene (orthorhombic 5,6,11,12-tetra-phenyl-tetracene), a co-crystal of zwitterionic betaine, imidazolium cations and picrate anions (BIPa), and the salt potassium hydrogen oxalate (KHOx). The non-hydrogen HAR-ADPs are as accurate and precise as the MM-ADPs. Both show excellent agreement with the neutron-based values and are superior to IAM-ADPs. The anisotropic hydrogen HAR-ADPs show a somewhat larger deviation from neutron-based values than the hydrogen SHADE-ADPs used in MM. Element-hydrogen bond lengths from HAR are in excellent agreement with those obtained from neutron diffraction experiments, although they are somewhat less precise. The residual density contour maps after HAR show fewer features than those after MM. Calculating the static electron density with the def2-TZVP basis set instead of the simpler def2-SVP one does not improve the refinement results significantly. All HARs were performed within the recently introduced HARt option implemented in the Olex2 program. They are easily launched

  4. Probing the accuracy and precision of Hirshfeld atom refinement with HARt interfaced with Olex2

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malte Fugel

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR is a novel X-ray structure refinement technique that employs aspherical atomic scattering factors obtained from stockholder partitioning of a theoretically determined tailor-made static electron density. HAR overcomes many of the known limitations of independent atom modelling (IAM, such as too short element–hydrogen distances, r(X—H, or too large atomic displacement parameters (ADPs. This study probes the accuracy and precision of anisotropic hydrogen and non-hydrogen ADPs and of r(X—H values obtained from HAR. These quantities are compared and found to agree with those obtained from (i accurate neutron diffraction data measured at the same temperatures as the X-ray data and (ii multipole modelling (MM, an established alternative method for interpreting X-ray diffraction data with the help of aspherical atomic scattering factors. Results are presented for three chemically different systems: the aromatic hydrocarbon rubrene (orthorhombic 5,6,11,12-tetraphenyltetracene, a co-crystal of zwitterionic betaine, imidazolium cations and picrate anions (BIPa, and the salt potassium hydrogen oxalate (KHOx. The non-hydrogen HAR-ADPs are as accurate and precise as the MM-ADPs. Both show excellent agreement with the neutron-based values and are superior to IAM-ADPs. The anisotropic hydrogen HAR-ADPs show a somewhat larger deviation from neutron-based values than the hydrogen SHADE-ADPs used in MM. Element–hydrogen bond lengths from HAR are in excellent agreement with those obtained from neutron diffraction experiments, although they are somewhat less precise. The residual density contour maps after HAR show fewer features than those after MM. Calculating the static electron density with the def2-TZVP basis set instead of the simpler def2-SVP one does not improve the refinement results significantly. All HARs were performed within the recently introduced HARt option implemented in the Olex2 program. They are easily

  5. Local grid refinement for free-surface flow simulations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Plas, Peter

    2017-01-01

    The principal goal of the current study is to explore and investigate the potential of local grid refinement for increasing the numerical efficiency of free-surface flow simulations in a practical context. In this thesis we propose a method for local grid refinement in the free-surface flow model

  6. 19 CFR 115.41 - Certificate of approval for containers approved after manufacture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... after manufacture. 115.41 Section 115.41 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT... PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS CONVENTIONS Procedures for Approval of Containers After Manufacture § 115.41 Certificate of approval for containers approved after manufacture. The Certifying Authority shall...

  7. Oil refining in South Asia and Australasia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamaguchi, N.D.

    2000-01-01

    An overview of the oil markets of Southeast Asia and Australasia is presented focussing on oil refining. Key statistics of both areas are tabulated, and figures providing information on GDP/capita, crude production, comparison of demand barrels, and product demand are provided. Crude oil production and supply, oil product demand, and the refining industries are examined with details given of evolution of capacity and cracking to distillation ratios

  8. Investment in Exploration-Production and Refining - 2016

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maisonnier, Guy; Hureau, Geoffroy; Serbutoviez, Sylvain; Silva, Constancio

    2017-03-01

    IFPEN analyses in this study the 2016 evolution of global investment in the field of exploration-production and refining: - Trends in oil and gas prices; - Investment in exploration/production: in sharp decline for the second consecutive year - the first time this has happened since 1986; - The global drilling market; - Geophysical: global activity and markets; - Offshore construction: market and business; - A significant reduction in refining projects (atmospheric distillation and conversion)

  9. Problems persist for French refining sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beck, R.J.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that France's refiners face a continuing shortfall of middle distillate capacity and a persistent surplus of heavy fuel oil. That's the main conclusion of the official Hydrocarbon Directorate's report on how France's refining sector performed in 1991. Imports up---The directorate noted that although net production of refined products in French refineries rose to 1.534 million b/d in 1991 from 1.48 million b/d in 1990, products imports jumped 9.7% to 602,000 b/d in the period. The glut of heavy fuel oil eased to some extent last year because French nuclear power capacity, heavily dependent on ample water supplies, was crimped by drought. That spawned fuel switching. The most note worthy increase in imports was for motor diesel, climbing to 176,000 b/d from 148,000 b/d in 1990. Tax credits are spurring French consumption of that fuel. For the first time, consumption of motor diesel in 1991 outstripped that of gasoline at 374,000 b/d and 356,000 b/d respectively

  10. Refining glass structure in two dimensions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadjadi, Mahdi; Bhattarai, Bishal; Drabold, D. A.; Thorpe, M. F.; Wilson, Mark

    2017-11-01

    Recently determined atomistic scale structures of near-two dimensional bilayers of vitreous silica (using scanning probe and electron microscopy) allow us to refine the experimentally determined coordinates to incorporate the known local chemistry more precisely. Further refinement is achieved by using classical potentials of varying complexity: one using harmonic potentials and the second employing an electrostatic description incorporating polarization effects. These are benchmarked against density functional calculations. Our main findings are that (a) there is a symmetry plane between the two disordered layers, a nice example of an emergent phenomena, (b) the layers are slightly tilted so that the Si-O-Si angle between the two layers is not 180∘ as originally thought but rather 175 ±2∘ , and (c) while interior areas that are not completely imagined can be reliably reconstructed, surface areas are more problematic. It is shown that small crystallites that appear are just as expected statistically in a continuous random network. This provides a good example of the value that can be added to disordered structures imaged at the atomic level by implementing computer refinement.

  11. Segmental Refinement: A Multigrid Technique for Data Locality

    KAUST Repository

    Adams, Mark F.; Brown, Jed; Knepley, Matt; Samtaney, Ravi

    2016-01-01

    We investigate a domain decomposed multigrid technique, termed segmental refinement, for solving general nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems. We extend the method first proposed in 1994 by analytically and experimentally investigating its complexity. We confirm that communication of traditional parallel multigrid is eliminated on fine grids, with modest amounts of extra work and storage, while maintaining the asymptotic exactness of full multigrid. We observe an accuracy dependence on the segmental refinement subdomain size, which was not considered in the original analysis. We present a communication complexity analysis that quantifies the communication costs ameliorated by segmental refinement and report performance results with up to 64K cores on a Cray XC30.

  12. Segmental Refinement: A Multigrid Technique for Data Locality

    KAUST Repository

    Adams, Mark F.

    2016-08-04

    We investigate a domain decomposed multigrid technique, termed segmental refinement, for solving general nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems. We extend the method first proposed in 1994 by analytically and experimentally investigating its complexity. We confirm that communication of traditional parallel multigrid is eliminated on fine grids, with modest amounts of extra work and storage, while maintaining the asymptotic exactness of full multigrid. We observe an accuracy dependence on the segmental refinement subdomain size, which was not considered in the original analysis. We present a communication complexity analysis that quantifies the communication costs ameliorated by segmental refinement and report performance results with up to 64K cores on a Cray XC30.

  13. Solving the Sophistication-Population Paradox of Game Refinement Theory

    OpenAIRE

    Xiong , Shuo; Tiwary , Parth ,; Iida , Hiroyuki

    2016-01-01

    Part 4: Short Papers; International audience; A mathematical model of game refinement was proposed based on uncertainty of game outcome. This model has been shown to be useful in measuring the entertainment element in the domains such as boardgames and sport games. However, game refinement theory has not been able to explain the correlation between the popularity of a game and the game refinement value. This paper introduces another aspect in the study of game entertainment, the concept of “a...

  14. A refined approach: Saudi Arabia moves beyond crude

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krane, Jim

    2015-01-01

    Saudi Arabia's role in global energy markets is changing. The kingdom is reshaping itself as a supplier of refined petroleum products while moving beyond its long-held role as a simple exporter of crude oil. This change is commensurate with the typical development trajectory of a state progressing to a more advanced stage of global economic integration. Gains from increased refining include reducing fuel imports and capturing margins now bequeathed to competitors. Refining also allows the kingdom to export its heavy crude oil to a wider array of customers, beyond select importers configured to handle heavy crudes. However, the move also presents strategic complications. The world's 'swing supplier' of oil may grow less willing or able to adjust supply to suit market demands. In the process, Saudi Arabia may have to update the old “oil for security” relationship that links it with Washington, augmenting it with a more diverse set of economic and investment ties with individual companies and countries, including China. -- Highlights: •Saudi Arabia is diverting crude oil into an expanding refining sector. •In doing so, the kingdom is moving beyond its role as global “swing supplier” of crude oil. •The kingdom will benefit from increased refining, including enhanced demand for heavy crude. •Strategic complications may force it to seek security partners beyond Washington

  15. The future of refining industry is in Asia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dupin, L.

    2010-01-01

    The decision of Total Group to close down the refining activity of its Flandres' site at Dunkerque (France) is a testimony of the deep restructuring that is affecting this sector. The migration of the refining activity towards Middle-East and Asia has started several years ago. The World capacities are increasing: in 2009 4.36 billion tons of petroleum products were refined in the world, representing a 1.9% rise with respect to 2008. 661 refineries exist in the world, among which 6 were inaugurated in 2009, 115 are located in Europe and 12 in France. The bad health of the European refining activity is beneficial to Middle and Asia where investments in new production capacities follow on from one another. From now to 2030, these areas will benefit from 70% of the worldwide investments compared to 11% only for Europe and North America. The decline of the European refining industry is directly linked to decay of the automotive fuel consumption and to the increase of the diesel fuel share with respect to gasoline. On the other hand, Asia, and in particular China and India, follow the exactly opposite trend thanks to their population and economic growths. Therefore, European oil companies try to invest in Asia and are looking for new production capacities in China and India. (J.S.)

  16. Refining - Panorama 2008; Raffinage - Panorama 2008

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2008-07-01

    Investment rallied in 2007, and many distillation and conversion projects likely to reach the industrial stage were announced. With economic growth sustained in 2006 and still pronounced in 2007, oil demand remained strong - especially in emerging countries - and refining margins stayed high. Despite these favorable business conditions, tensions persisted in the refining sector, which has fallen far behind in terms of investing in refinery capacity. It will take renewed efforts over a long period to catch up. Looking at recent events that have affected the economy in many countries (e.g. the sub-prime crisis), prudence remains advisable.

  17. The Charfuel coal refining process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meyer, L.G.

    1991-01-01

    The patented Charfuel coal refining process employs fluidized hydrocracking to produce char and liquid products from virtually all types of volatile-containing coals, including low rank coal and lignite. It is not gasification or liquefaction which require the addition of expensive oxygen or hydrogen or the use of extreme heat or pressure. It is not the German pyrolysis process that merely 'cooks' the coal, producing coke and tar-like liquids. Rather, the Charfuel coal refining process involves thermal hydrocracking which results in the rearrangement of hydrogen within the coal molecule to produce a slate of co-products. In the Charfuel process, pulverized coal is rapidly heated in a reducing atmosphere in the presence of internally generated process hydrogen. This hydrogen rearrangement allows refinement of various ranks of coals to produce a pipeline transportable, slurry-type, environmentally clean boiler fuel and a slate of value-added traditional fuel and chemical feedstock co-products. Using coal and oxygen as the only feedstocks, the Charfuel hydrocracking technology economically removes much of the fuel nitrogen, sulfur, and potential air toxics (such as chlorine, mercury, beryllium, etc.) from the coal, resulting in a high heating value, clean burning fuel which can increase power plant efficiency while reducing operating costs. The paper describes the process, its thermal efficiency, its use in power plants, its pipeline transport, co-products, environmental and energy benefits, and economics

  18. A Refined Model for the Structure of Acireductone Dioxygenase from Klebsiella ATCC 8724 Incorporating Residual Dipolar Couplings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pochapsky, Thomas C., E-mail: pochapsk@brandeis.edu; Pochapsky, Susan S.; Ju Tingting [Brandeis University, Department of Chemistry (United States); Hoefler, Chris [Brandeis University, Department of Biochemistry (United States); Liang Jue [Brandeis University, Department of Chemistry (United States)

    2006-02-15

    Acireductone dioxygenase (ARD) from Klebsiella ATCC 8724 is a metalloenzyme that is capable of catalyzing different reactions with the same substrates (acireductone and O{sub 2}) depending upon the metal bound in the active site. A model for the solution structure of the paramagnetic Ni{sup 2+}-containing ARD has been refined using residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) measured in two media. Additional dihedral restraints based on chemical shift (TALOS) were included in the refinement, and backbone structure in the vicinity of the active site was modeled from a crystallographic structure of the mouse homolog of ARD. The incorporation of residual dipolar couplings into the structural refinement alters the relative orientations of several structural features significantly, and improves local secondary structure determination. Comparisons between the solution structures obtained with and without RDCs are made, and structural similarities and differences between mouse and bacterial enzymes are described. Finally, the biological significance of these differences is considered.

  19. Asian oil refining. Demand growth and deregulation - an uncertain future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sameer Nawaz.

    1996-01-01

    The objective of the report is to identify the most important features of the oil refining industry in Asia. Major developments in consumption patterns changes in regional importance of countries are discussed, highlighting potential future developments. The first chapter introduces the various refining processes and presents a simple model for the analysis of complex refineries. Chapter 2 examines the development of the Asian refining industry against a background of economic growth and analyses trends in consumption of all products in Asian countries. In Chapter 3, the key issues concerning the refining industry are examined, among them the forces driving consumption, including the importance of economic development, and electricity and transport demand. The importance of product imports and international trade is discussed, and the extent of government involvement and the effects of changing retail and market prices are analysed. Chapter 4 looks at the strategies that oil and gas companies are following in the Asian refining industry. Particular significance is attached to the vertical integration of the oil majors, Japanese and Middle Eastern oil companies. A brief overview of the importance of the petrochemical industry is presented. The countries of Asia that are involved in the refining industry are profiled in Chapter 5. The future trend in oil consumption is examined in Chapter 6. There follows a brief discussion of the plans to expand crude refining capacity in the various countries and a forecast of the state of overcapacity which will result. In the final chapter, brief profiles of some of the most important companies in the Asian refining industry are presented, discussing their major activities and future plans. (Author)

  20. Grain refinement of permanent mold cast copper base alloys. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sadayappan, M.; Thomson, J. P.; Elboujdaini, M.; Gu, G. Ping; Sahoo, M.

    2004-04-29

    Grain refinement behavior of copper alloys cast in permanent molds was investigated. This is one of the least studied subjects in copper alloy castings. Grain refinement is not widely practiced for leaded copper alloys cast in sand molds. Aluminum bronzes and high strength yellow brasses, cast in sand and permanent molds, were usually fine grained due to the presence of more than 2% iron. Grain refinement of the most common permanent mold casting alloys, leaded yellow brass and its lead-free replacement EnviroBrass III, is not universally accepted due to the perceived problem of hard spots in finished castings and for the same reason these alloys contain very low amounts of iron. The yellow brasses and Cu-Si alloys are gaining popularity in North America due to their low lead content and amenability for permanent mold casting. These alloys are prone to hot tearing in permanent mold casting. Grain refinement is one of the solutions for reducing this problem. However, to use this technique it is necessary to understand the mechanism of grain refinement and other issues involved in the process. The following issues were studied during this three year project funded by the US Department of Energy and the copper casting industry: (1) Effect of alloying additions on the grain size of Cu-Zn alloys and their interaction with grain refiners; (2) Effect of two grain refining elements, boron and zirconium, on the grain size of four copper alloys, yellow brass, EnviroBrass II, silicon brass and silicon bronze and the duration of their effect (fading); (3) Prediction of grain refinement using cooling curve analysis and use of this method as an on-line quality control tool; (4) Hard spot formation in yellow brass and EnviroBrass due to grain refinement; (5) Corrosion resistance of the grain refined alloys; (6) Transfer the technology to permanent mold casting foundries; It was found that alloying elements such as tin and zinc do not change the grain size of Cu-Zn alloys

  1. The present state of refining in France

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-01-01

    The european refining industry suffers from a production over-capacity and closures are inevitable; the situation is even worse in France due to the imbalance between gas oil and gasoline prices and the weak margin for distributors. The French refining industry is however an important and essential link for its strategic fuel and petroleum product supply, and represent 17000 jobs. Several measures are introduced by the French Industry department towards restructuring, capacity reduction and fuel price harmonization

  2. An interactive medical image segmentation framework using iterative refinement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalshetti, Pratik; Bundele, Manas; Rahangdale, Parag; Jangra, Dinesh; Chattopadhyay, Chiranjoy; Harit, Gaurav; Elhence, Abhay

    2017-04-01

    Segmentation is often performed on medical images for identifying diseases in clinical evaluation. Hence it has become one of the major research areas. Conventional image segmentation techniques are unable to provide satisfactory segmentation results for medical images as they contain irregularities. They need to be pre-processed before segmentation. In order to obtain the most suitable method for medical image segmentation, we propose MIST (Medical Image Segmentation Tool), a two stage algorithm. The first stage automatically generates a binary marker image of the region of interest using mathematical morphology. This marker serves as the mask image for the second stage which uses GrabCut to yield an efficient segmented result. The obtained result can be further refined by user interaction, which can be done using the proposed Graphical User Interface (GUI). Experimental results show that the proposed method is accurate and provides satisfactory segmentation results with minimum user interaction on medical as well as natural images. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. A new process of electron beam refining of niobium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pinatti, D.G.

    1981-01-01

    A review of thermodynamic equilibrium, the kinetic theory and experimental results of the metal-gas interaction in refractory metals is presented. N 2 , H 2 and CO absorption and desorption take place by a reversible process while O 2 takes place by a irreversible process with atom absorption and metal oxide desorption. A new technology of electron beam refining of Niobium is proposed based on four points: 1) preparation of the aluminothermic reduced electrode, 2) zone refining in the first melt, 3) kinetic theory of refining in the following melts and 4) design of a compact furnace. Experimental results in a pilot plant of 300 KW have shown complete agreement with the proposed technology yielding a productivity 2.4 times larger than the value predicted by the conventional technology of electron beam refining of Niobium. (Author) [pt

  4. European refining: evolution or revolution?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cuthbert, N.

    1999-01-01

    A recent detailed analysis of the refining business in Europe (by Purvin and Gurtz) was used to highlight some key issues facing the industry. The article was written under five sub-sections: (i) economic environment (assessment of the economic prospects for Europe), (ii) energy efficiency and global warming (lists the four points of the EU car makers' voluntary agreement), (iii) fuel quality and refinery investment (iv) refinery capacity and utilisation and (v) industry structure and development. Diagrams show GDP per capita for East and West, European road fuel demand to 2015 and European net trade and European refinery ownership by crude capacity. It was concluded that the future of refining in Europe is 'exciting and challenging' and there are likely to be more large joint venture refineries. (UK)

  5. Study of the crystallite size of nitrosylpentacyanoferrate through refinement of structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jimenez G, J.A.; Yee M, H.T.; Balmaceda E, J.; Reguera R, E.

    2006-01-01

    The development reached in the instrumentation and in the computer science of the diffraction of rays X, it has enlarged the reach of the method of powders considerably, in the resolution of crystalline structures of polycrystalline material converting it in a potent tool that, attended by spectroscopic techniques, it allows the fine characterization to atomic scale of having been accustomed to crystalline. In the thesis it is developed an effective methodology of determination of the crystallite size and structural refinement starting from data of diffraction of powders, based on the use of the equation of Sherrer for the estimate of the crystallite size and the method of Rietveld for the structural refinement; supplemented with the employment of the spectroscopic methods (IR and Moessbauer). The combined use of these techniques in the structural study of having been accustomed to crystalline lens of high complexity provides a novel and advanced work. The estimate of the crystallite size, it has been little explored to study accustomed to crystalline such as the pentacyanonitrosyl ferrates. One of the reasons for the which have intended to study the glass size in these structures it is due to that the molecular materials have attracted the attention of the international scientific community for their promissory properties in fields so diverse as: the absorption, desorption and separation of gases among others. Of the entreated information by means of databases and articles of scientific popularization were refined the structures of two compounds (NPCo and NPNi) obtained by powders diffraction; offering the possibility to develop a titled work: 'Physical description of the desorption of the water in nano structured material of nitrosyl penta cyano ferrates' which is carried out in parallel way to this thesis. This tools supplemented with the spectroscopic methods, potent the reach of the methods of diffraction of powders for the structural study of having been

  6. New 2D adaptive mesh refinement algorithm based on conservative finite-differences with staggered grid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerya, T.; Duretz, T.; May, D. A.

    2012-04-01

    We present new 2D adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithm based on stress-conservative finite-differences formulated for non-uniform rectangular staggered grid. The refinement approach is based on a repetitive cell splitting organized via a quad-tree construction (every parent cell is split into 4 daughter cells of equal size). Irrespective of the level of resolution every cell has 5 staggered nodes (2 horizontal velocities, 2 vertical velocities and 1 pressure) for which respective governing equations, boundary conditions and interpolation equations are formulated. The connectivity of the grid is achieved via cross-indexing of grid cells and basic nodal points located in their corners: four corner nodes are indexed for every cell and up to 4 surrounding cells are indexed for every node. The accuracy of the approach depends critically on the formulation of the stencil used at the "hanging" velocity nodes located at the boundaries between different levels of resolution. Most accurate results are obtained for the scheme based on the volume flux balance across the resolution boundary combined with stress-based interpolation of velocity orthogonal to the boundary. We tested this new approach with a number of 2D variable viscosity analytical solutions. Our tests demonstrate that the adaptive staggered grid formulation has convergence properties similar to those obtained in case of a standard, non-adaptive staggered grid formulation. This convergence is also achieved when resolution boundary crosses sharp viscosity contrast interfaces. The convergence rates measured are found to be insensitive to scenarios when the transition in grid resolution crosses sharp viscosity contrast interfaces. We compared various grid refinement strategies based on distribution of different field variables such as viscosity, density and velocity. According to these tests the refinement allows for significant (0.5-1 order of magnitude) increase in the computational accuracy at the same

  7. Multilevel local refinement and multigrid methods for 3-D turbulent flow

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liao, C.; Liu, C. [UCD, Denver, CO (United States); Sung, C.H.; Huang, T.T. [David Taylor Model Basin, Bethesda, MD (United States)

    1996-12-31

    A numerical approach based on multigrid, multilevel local refinement, and preconditioning methods for solving incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations is presented. 3-D turbulent flow around an underwater vehicle is computed. 3 multigrid levels and 2 local refinement grid levels are used. The global grid is 24 x 8 x 12. The first patch is 40 x 16 x 20 and the second patch is 72 x 32 x 36. 4th order artificial dissipation are used for numerical stability. The conservative artificial compressibility method are used for further improvement of convergence. To improve the accuracy of coarse/fine grid interface of local refinement, flux interpolation method for refined grid boundary is used. The numerical results are in good agreement with experimental data. The local refinement can improve the prediction accuracy significantly. The flux interpolation method for local refinement can keep conservation for a composite grid, therefore further modify the prediction accuracy.

  8. Property enhancement by grain refinement of zinc-aluminium foundry alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krajewski, W K; Piwowarski, G; Krajewski, P K; Greer, A L

    2016-01-01

    Development of cast alloys with good mechanical properties and involving less energy consumption during their melting is one of the key demands of today's industry. Zinc foundry alloys of high and medium Al content, i.e. Zn-(15-30) wt.% Al and Zn-(8-12) wt.% Al, can satisfy these requirements. The present paper summarizes the work [1-9] on improving properties of sand-cast ZnAl10 (Zn-10 wt.% Al) and ZnAl25 (Zn-25 wt. % Al) alloys by melt inoculation. Special attention was devoted to improving ductility, whilst preserving high damping properties at the same time. The composition and structural modification of medium- and high-aluminium zinc alloys influence their strength, tribological properties and structural stability. In a series of studies, Zn - (10-12) wt. % Al and Zn - (25-26) wt.% Al - (1-2.5) wt.% Cu alloys have been doped with different levels of added Ti. The melted alloys were inoculated with ZnTi-based refiners and it was observed that the dendritic structure is significantly finer already after addition of 50 - 100 ppm Ti to the melted alloys. The alloy's structure and mechanical properties have been studied using: SEM (scanning electron microscopy), LM (light microscopy), dilatometry, pin-on-disc wear, and tensile strength measurements. Grain refinement leads to significant improvement of ductility in the binary high-aluminium Zn-(25-27) Al alloys while in the medium-aluminium alloys the effect is rather weak. In the ternary alloys Zn-26Al-Cu, replacing a part of Cu with Ti allows dimensional changes to be reduced while preserving good tribological properties. Furthermore, the high initial damping properties were nearly entirely preserved after inoculation. The results obtained allow us to characterize grain refinement of the examined high-aluminium zinc alloys as a promising process leading to the improvement of their properties. At the same time, using low melting ZnTi-based master alloys makes it possible to avoid the excessive melt

  9. Adaptive mesh refinement for storm surge

    KAUST Repository

    Mandli, Kyle T.; Dawson, Clint N.

    2014-01-01

    An approach to utilizing adaptive mesh refinement algorithms for storm surge modeling is proposed. Currently numerical models exist that can resolve the details of coastal regions but are often too costly to be run in an ensemble forecasting framework without significant computing resources. The application of adaptive mesh refinement algorithms substantially lowers the computational cost of a storm surge model run while retaining much of the desired coastal resolution. The approach presented is implemented in the GeoClaw framework and compared to ADCIRC for Hurricane Ike along with observed tide gauge data and the computational cost of each model run. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

  10. Adaptive mesh refinement for storm surge

    KAUST Repository

    Mandli, Kyle T.

    2014-03-01

    An approach to utilizing adaptive mesh refinement algorithms for storm surge modeling is proposed. Currently numerical models exist that can resolve the details of coastal regions but are often too costly to be run in an ensemble forecasting framework without significant computing resources. The application of adaptive mesh refinement algorithms substantially lowers the computational cost of a storm surge model run while retaining much of the desired coastal resolution. The approach presented is implemented in the GeoClaw framework and compared to ADCIRC for Hurricane Ike along with observed tide gauge data and the computational cost of each model run. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

  11. Russian refining - an industry in transition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barrett, E [CentreInvest, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    1999-02-01

    In the old Soviet Union (now called the CIS), the refining industry is undergoing much modernisation, although the process is far from complete. Eventually, the CIS is expected to have a market-responsive competitive refining business. The expected transformation is discussed according to a five-stage plan. The stages are (i) the change from horizontally integrated entity to vertically integrated global concerns, (ii) the change from over-manned dinosaurs to modern efficient businesses, (iii) the move towards smaller, more advanced market-orientated processes, (iv) improving the transport and storage infrastructures and (v) improving accountability and profitability. The predictions for 2005 onwards are for sustained profitability. (UK)

  12. Note: Additionally refined new possibilities of plasma probe diagnostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riaby, V. A.; Savinov, V. P.; Masherov, P. E.; Yakunin, V. G.

    2018-03-01

    In two previous Notes published in this journal, a method of measuring probe sheath thickness and ion mass was described using Langmuir probe diagnostics in low pressure xenon plasma close to Maxwellian substance. According to the first Note, this method includes two stages: (i) in a special experiment with known ion mass, the Bohm and Child-Langmuir-Boguslavsky (CLB) equations for cylindrical Langmuir probes used in this xenon plasma were solved jointly to determine the probe sheath thicknesses and Bohm coefficient CBCyl ≈ 1.13; and (ii) in a general experiment, with known CBCyl, the same equations could be solved to obtain the probe sheath thicknesses and the mean ion mass. In the second Note, the (i) stage of this method was refined: the results of the CLB probe sheath model application, which were termed "evaluations," were corrected using the step-front probe sheath model, which was closer to reality in the special experiment with the xenon plasma. This process resulted in a Bohm coefficient of CBCyl ≈ 1.23 for the cylindrical probe. In the present Note, corrected xenon plasma parameters without the influence of the bare probe protective shield were used for the (i) stage of this diagnostic method. This action also refined the Bohm coefficient, lowering it to CBCyl ≈ 0.745 for cylindrical probes. This advance makes the new diagnostics method more objective and reliable.

  13. 29 CFR 5.16 - Training plans approved or recognized by the Department of Labor prior to August 20, 1975.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Training plans approved or recognized by the Department of... STANDARDS ACT) Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Provisions and Procedures § 5.16 Training plans approved or... contractor shall be required to obtain approval of a training program which, prior to August 20, 1975, was...

  14. A Refined Zigzag Beam Theory for Composite and Sandwich Beams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tessler, Alexander; Sciuva, Marco Di; Gherlone, Marco

    2009-01-01

    A new refined theory for laminated composite and sandwich beams that contains the kinematics of the Timoshenko Beam Theory as a proper baseline subset is presented. This variationally consistent theory is derived from the virtual work principle and employs a novel piecewise linear zigzag function that provides a more realistic representation of the deformation states of transverse-shear flexible beams than other similar theories. This new zigzag function is unique in that it vanishes at the top and bottom bounding surfaces of a beam. The formulation does not enforce continuity of the transverse shear stress across the beam s cross-section, yet is robust. Two major shortcomings that are inherent in the previous zigzag theories, shear-force inconsistency and difficulties in simulating clamped boundary conditions, and that have greatly limited the utility of these previous theories are discussed in detail. An approach that has successfully resolved these shortcomings is presented herein. Exact solutions for simply supported and cantilevered beams subjected to static loads are derived and the improved modelling capability of the new zigzag beam theory is demonstrated. In particular, extensive results for thick beams with highly heterogeneous material lay-ups are discussed and compared with corresponding results obtained from elasticity solutions, two other zigzag theories, and high-fidelity finite element analyses. Comparisons with the baseline Timoshenko Beam Theory are also presented. The comparisons clearly show the improved accuracy of the new, refined zigzag theory presented herein over similar existing theories. This new theory can be readily extended to plate and shell structures, and should be useful for obtaining relatively low-cost, accurate estimates of structural response needed to design an important class of high-performance aerospace structures.

  15. Oil refining and product marketing developments in southeast Asia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szabo, A.M.

    1992-01-01

    Views on the future are based on supplies from a relatively stable Middle East and continued economic growth in the southeast Asian and Pacific countries. Under these circumstances the oil market for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will expand considerably during the decade of the 90's. Pacific country demand, 5.92 MMB/D, in 1990 is likely to grow to 7.06 MMB/D in 2000. Regional production could supply about 40% of this. The Asia-Pacific shortage of refining capacity could lead to high regional refined product prices and health refining profit margins. (author)

  16. Electromyogram refinement using muscle synergy based regulation of uncertain information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Min, Kyuengbo; Shin, Duk; Lee, Jongho; Kakei, Shinji

    2018-04-27

    Electromyogram signal (EMG) measurement frequently experiences uncertainty attributed to issues caused by technical constraints such as cross talk and maximum voluntary contraction. Due to these problems, individual EMGs exhibit uncertainty in representing their corresponding muscle activations. To regulate this uncertainty, we proposed an EMG refinement, which refines EMGs with regulating the contribution redundancy of the signals from EMGs to approximating torques through EMG-driven torque estimation (EDTE) using the muscular skeletal forward dynamic model. To regulate this redundancy, we must consider the synergistic contribution redundancy of muscles, including "unmeasured" muscles, to approximating torques, which primarily causes redundancy of EDTE. To suppress this redundancy, we used the concept of muscle synergy, which is a key concept of analyzing the neurophysiological regulation of contribution redundancy of muscles to exerting torques. Based on this concept, we designed a muscle-synergy-based EDTE as a framework for EMG refinement, which regulates the abovementioned uncertainty of individual EMGs in consideration of unmeasured muscles. In achieving the proposed EMG refinement, the most considerable point is to suppress a large change such as overestimation attributed to enhancement of the contribution of particular muscles to estimating torques. Therefore it is reasonable to refine EMGs by minimizing the change in EMGs. To evaluate this model, we used a Bland-Altman plot, which quantitatively evaluates the proportional bias of refined signals to EMGs. Through this evaluation, we showed that the proposed EDTE minimizes the bias while approximating torques. Therefore this minimization optimally regulates the uncertainty of EMGs and thereby leads to optimal EMG refinement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Decontamination of transuranic contaminated metals by melt refining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heshmatpour, B.; Copeland, G.L.; Heestand, R.L.

    1983-01-01

    Melt refining of transuranic contaminated metals is a possible decontamination process with the potential advantages of producing metal for reuse and of simplifying chemical analyses. By routinely achieving the 10 nCi/g( about0.1ppm) level by melt refining, scrap metal can be removed from the transuranic waste category. (To demonstrate the effectiveness of this melt refining process, mild steel, stainless steel, nickel, and copper were contaminated with 500 ppm (μg/g) PuO 2 and melted with various fluxes. The solidified slags and metals were analyzed for their plutonium contents, and corresponding partition ratios for plutonium were calculated. Some metals were double refined in order to study the effect of secondary slag treatment. The initial weight of the slags was also varied to investigate the effect of slag weight on the degree of plutonium removal. In general, all four metals could be decontaminated below 1 ppm (μg/g) Pu ( about100 nCi/g) by a single slag treatment. Doubling the slag weight did not improve decontamination significantly; however, double slag treatment using 5 wt.% slag did decontaminate the metals to below 0.1 ppm (μg/g) Pu (10 nCi/g).)

  18. Calculation of ethanol refining by means of extractive distillation with water using simulated data on phase equilibria

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rosak, J; Mertl, I; Huml, M; Wichterle, I

    1980-01-01

    Available data on phase equilibria in binary mixtures pertaining to the system ethanol - water - impurities (7 compounds that represent the main impurities present in raw synthetic or fermentation ethanol) have been gathered for the computer calculation of a column to be used for the refining of ethanol. Missing experimental data on phase equilibria were supplied by simulation using the increment method UNIFAC which predicts phase equilibria on the basis of the chemical structure. All data about the behavior of binary mixtures were correlated by means of the NRTL method and the sets of constants thus obtained were then used in calculations of the column for the refining of ethanol. The results were compared with reality verified on industrial scale.

  19. A neutron powder diffraction study of deuterated α-resorcinol: a test of profile refinement using TLS constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bacon, G.E.; Lisher, E.J.

    1979-01-01

    Constrained TL, TLX and TLS refinements have been used, with the powder-profile method, in the analysis of accurate neutron powder data for deuterated α-resorcinol at room temperature. There is good agreement between the translational and librational parameters derived from the TL refinement and those obtained from an equivalent analysis of accurate single-crystal neutron measurements. The fine details of the benzene ring are lost in the powder analysis, but the molecular orientation and the OH bond angles are in good agreement with the single-crystal values. No significant improvement could be found in the powder fit by applying the full TLS theory and, therefore, the approximate TLX model appears to be adequate for powder data. (Auth.)

  20. Redfield Energy Approval

    Science.gov (United States)

    This September 19, 2016 letter from EPA approves the petition from Poet Biorefining-Lake Crystal, regarding non-This October 27, 2016 letter from EPA approves the petition from Redfield Energy, LLC, regarding non-grandfathered ethanol produced

  1. Role of manganese on the grain refining efficiency of AZ91D magnesium alloy refined by Al4C3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Shengfa; Zhang Yuan; Han Hui

    2010-01-01

    A novel Mg-50% Al 4 C 3 (hereafter in wt.%) master alloy has been developed by powder in situ synthesis process, the role of manganese on the grain refining efficiency of AZ91D magnesium alloy refined by this master alloy has been investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) results show the existence of Al 4 C 3 particles in this master alloy. After addition of 0.6% Al 4 C 3 or combined addition of 0.6% Al 4 C 3 and 0.27% Mn, the average grain size of AZ91D decreased dramatically from 360 μm to 210 μm, and from 360 μm to130 μm, respectively. However, no further refinement of grain size was achieved with additional amount of Mn exceeding 0.27% for AZ91D alloy refined by 0.6% Al 4 C 3 in the present investigation. Al-C-O-Mn-Fe-rich intermetallic particles with an Al-C-O-rich coating film, often observed in the central region of magnesium grains of the AZ91D alloy treated by the combination of Al 4 C 3 and Mn, are proposed to be the potent nucleating substrates for primary α-Mg.

  2. 40 CFR 80.555 - What provisions are available to a large refiner that acquires a small refiner or one or more of...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... FUELS AND FUEL ADDITIVES Motor Vehicle Diesel Fuel; Nonroad, Locomotive, and Marine Diesel Fuel; and ECA... May 31, 2010 for a refinery acquired from a motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or beyond the... motor vehicle diesel fuel small refiner or beyond the dates specified in § 80.554(a) or (b), as...

  3. Refinements in the vibration frequencies of H3+ and D3+

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carney, G.D.

    1980-01-01

    Refinements in vibration intervals of the order of 1 per cent are reported for H 3 + and D 3 + . These improved intervals result from the addition of polarization terms to the electronic wavefunction previously obtained with a complete configuration-interaction treatment of electron correlation using a 21 floating gaussian lobe basis. Twelve additional floating gaussian lobe orbitals were used to construct 78 additional configuration-interaction functions. Positions and exponents of these additional floating gaussian lobe orbitals were carefully chosen to allow for polarization of the correlated wavefunctions. Calculated vibrational state-averaged and observed geometries for H 3 + agree to within 0.01 A; refined fundamental frequencies are νsub(A) = 3220.48 and νsub(E) = 2545.99 cm -1 for H 3 + , and νsub(A) = 2332.94 and νsub(E) = 1848.12 cm -1 for D 3 + . Einstein coefficients for spontaneous emission of radiation from infrared active states of H 3 + and D 3 + are reported, and an alternative to the Carney-Porter method of vibration analysis is used to confirm the accuracy of their method for axial molecules such as H 3 + . (author)

  4. An adaptive mesh refinement-multiphase lattice Boltzmann flux solver for simulation of complex binary fluid flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, H. Z.; Wang, Y.; Shu, C.

    2017-12-01

    This paper presents an adaptive mesh refinement-multiphase lattice Boltzmann flux solver (AMR-MLBFS) for effective simulation of complex binary fluid flows at large density ratios. In this method, an AMR algorithm is proposed by introducing a simple indicator on the root block for grid refinement and two possible statuses for each block. Unlike available block-structured AMR methods, which refine their mesh by spawning or removing four child blocks simultaneously, the present method is able to refine its mesh locally by spawning or removing one to four child blocks independently when the refinement indicator is triggered. As a result, the AMR mesh used in this work can be more focused on the flow region near the phase interface and its size is further reduced. In each block of mesh, the recently proposed MLBFS is applied for the solution of the flow field and the level-set method is used for capturing the fluid interface. As compared with existing AMR-lattice Boltzmann models, the present method avoids both spatial and temporal interpolations of density distribution functions so that converged solutions on different AMR meshes and uniform grids can be obtained. The proposed method has been successfully validated by simulating a static bubble immersed in another fluid, a falling droplet, instabilities of two-layered fluids, a bubble rising in a box, and a droplet splashing on a thin film with large density ratios and high Reynolds numbers. Good agreement with the theoretical solution, the uniform-grid result, and/or the published data has been achieved. Numerical results also show its effectiveness in saving computational time and virtual memory as compared with computations on uniform meshes.

  5. Radiological Medical Device Innovation: Approvals via the Premarket Approval Pathway From 2000 to 2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghobadi, Comeron W; Hayman, Emily L; Finkle, Joshua H; Walter, Jessica R; Xu, Shuai

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this study was to critically assess the clinical evidence leading to radiologic medical device approvals via the premarket approval pathway from 2000 to 2015. This study used the publically available FDA premarket database for radiologic device approvals over the past 15 years (September 1, 2000, to August 31, 2015). Approval characteristics were collected for each device, and statistical analysis was performed on the data for each pivotal trial. Additionally, methodological quality of the pivotal trial was determined using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Twenty-three class III radiologic device approvals were identified, with breast imaging accounting for 16 (70%) and computer-aided detection software accounting for 9 (39%) approvals. The median premarket approval time was 475 days (range, 180-1,116). Twenty-one devices were approved on the basis of multireader, multicenter studies, one on the basis of a randomized controlled trial, and one on the basis of a preclinical technical equivalence trial. The median number of patients per pivotal trial was 201 (range, 25-3,946). Twenty-six of the 34 pivotal trials (76%) had at least one methodologic bias. Breast imaging devices had a greater number of patients per pivotal trial (P = .009) and more prospective studies. With regard to all modalities, increased time to device approval correlated with weaker trial quality (r = 0.600, P assessing diagnostic technologies. Given that radiologic devices play a key role in modern medicine, further efforts should be made to increase transparency of clinical data leading to approval. Copyright © 2016 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Strategic issues and implications for the refining and marketing sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeffe, R.A.

    1995-01-01

    Refiners have faced a challenging business environment for the past decade. During this period, the industry has made approximately $25 billion of capital expenditures primarily to comply with increased governmental mandates, faced highly volatile petroleum product prices and garnered a return to equity of only 5%. While worldwide and US refining capacity has been flat in recent years, demand for refined petroleum products has been on the upswing and domestic supplies have also increased due to improved US capacity utilization rates (76% in 1984 and 93% in 1994) and increased imports (gasoline sales up 11% since 1984). The result has been highly volatile and generally weak refining margins (net Gulf Coast crack spread ranging from ($.95)/bbl in 1984 to $1.84/bbl in 1990 and averaging $.81/bbl since 1984). In response to the sustained difficulties in the marketplace, one has recently witnessed some strategic realignment in the industry. Several of the integrated companies, frustrated with the required capital expenditures and meager returns, have decided to shed non-core, non-strategic refining assets. For the most part, these assets have been bought by independents at, by historical measures, very attractive terms. This paper will provide an overview of the economics of the refining business, discuss the recent trends in refinery M and A activity and summarize possible implications of the recent strategic realignment

  7. Grid refinement for aeroacoustics in the lattice Boltzmann method: A directional splitting approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gendre, Félix; Ricot, Denis; Fritz, Guillaume; Sagaut, Pierre

    2017-08-01

    This study focuses on grid refinement techniques for the direct simulation of aeroacoustics, when using weakly compressible lattice Boltzmann models, such as the D3Q19 athermal velocity set. When it comes to direct noise computation, very small errors on the density or pressure field may have great negative consequences. Even strong acoustic density fluctuations have indeed a clearly lower amplitude than the hydrodynamic ones. This work deals with such very weak spurious fluctuations that emerge when a vortical structure crosses a refinement interface, which may contaminate the resulting aeroacoustic field. We show through an extensive literature review that, within the framework described above, this issue has never been addressed before. To tackle this problem, we develop an alternative algorithm and compare its behavior to a classical one, which fits our in-house vertex-centered data structure. Our main idea relies on a directional splitting of the continuous discrete velocity Boltzmann equation, followed by an integration over specific characteristics. This method can be seen as a specific coupling between finite difference and lattice Boltzmann, locally on the interface between the two grids. The method is assessed considering two cases: an acoustic pulse and a convected vortex. We show how very small errors on the density field arise and propagate throughout the domain when a vortical flow crosses the refinement interface. We also show that an increased free stream Mach number (but still within the weakly compressible regime) strongly deteriorates the situation, although the magnitude of the errors may remain negligible for purely aerodynamic studies. A drastically reduced level of error for the near-field spurious noise is obtained with our approach, especially for under-resolved simulations, a situation that is crucial for industrial applications. Thus, the vortex case is proved useful for aeroacoustic validations of any grid refinement algorithm.

  8. High purity zirconium obtainment through the iodine compounds transport method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolcich, J.C.; Zuzek, E.; Dutrus, S.M.; Corso, H.L.

    1987-01-01

    This paper describes the experimental method and the equipment designed, constructed and actually applied for the high purity zirconium obtainment from a zirconium sponge of the nuclear type. The mechanism of purification is based on the impure metal attack with gaseous iodine (at 200 deg C) to obtain zirconium tetra iodine as main product which is then transformed into a pure zirconium base (at 1000-1300 deg C), precipitating the metallic zirconium and releasing the gaseous iodine. From the first experiences carried out, pure zirconium has been obtained from an initial filament of 0.5 mm of diameter as well as wires up to 2.5 mm of diameter. This work presents the results from the studies and analysis made to characterize the material obtained. Finally, the refining methods to which the zirconium produced may be submitted so as to optimize the final purity are discussed. (Author)

  9. 30 CFR 18.95 - Approval of machines constructed of components approved, accepted or certified under Bureau of...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Approval of machines constructed of components... APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS ELECTRIC MOTOR-DRIVEN MINE EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES Field Approval of Electrically Operated Mining Equipment § 18.95 Approval of machines constructed of components approved...

  10. Continuous method for refining sodium. [for use in LMFBR type reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Batoux, B; Laurent-Atthalin, A; Salmon, M

    1973-11-16

    The invention relates to a refining method according to which commercial sodium provides a high purity sodium with, in particular, a very small calcium content. The method consists in continuously feeding a predetermined amount of sodium peroxide into a sodium stream, mixing and causing said sodium peroxide to reach with sodium at an appropriate temperature, and, finally, separating the reaction products from sodium by decanting and filtering same. The thus obtained high purity sodium meets the requirements of atomic industries in particular, in view of its possible use as coolant in nuclear reactors of the ''breeder'' type.

  11. HASSP and HEAVY: Tools for automated heavy atom searches and refinement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Terwilliger, T.T.

    1994-06-01

    In this tutorial, a simple example using model data for one derivative with anomalous information will be used to demonstrate the use of HASSP and HEAVY in heavy atom determination and refinement. The data used here will actually be based on model MAD data that has been converted to MIR format using MADMRG, but the treatment is identical to that for any other SIR+anomalous data. The data nd most of the programs discussed here can be obtained by e-mail from ''terwil at sign prov2.lanl.gov'' along with VAX-specific command files to run the data through

  12. Mirror of the refined topological vertex from a matrix model

    CERN Document Server

    Eynard, B

    2011-01-01

    We find an explicit matrix model computing the refined topological vertex, starting from its representation in terms of plane partitions. We then find the spectral curve of that matrix model, and thus the mirror symmetry of the refined vertex. With the same method we also find a matrix model for the strip geometry, and we find its mirror curve. The fact that there is a matrix model shows that the refined topological string amplitudes also satisfy the remodeling the B-model construction.

  13. Effect of Chemical Refining on Citrullus Colocynthis and Pongamia ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Oil from the both plant seeds was evaluated (both before and after refining) for different physico-chemical parameters like free fatty acids, iodine value, peroxide value, saponification value, unsaponifiable matter and fatty acid composition. Oil yield (30-35 %) in both plants was found average. After refining, per cent reduction ...

  14. Design refinement of multilayer optical thin film devices with two optimization techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Apparao, K.V.S.R.

    1992-01-01

    The design efficiency of two different optimization techniques of designing multilayer optical thin film devices is compared. Ten different devices of varying complexities are chosen as design examples for the comparison. The design refinement efficiency and the design parameter characteristics of all the sample designs obtained with the two techniques are compared. The results of the comparison demonstrate that the new method of design developed using damped least squares technique with indirect derivatives give superior and efficient designs compared to the method developed with direct derivatives. (author). 23 refs., 4 tabs., 14 figs

  15. Refined analysis results for multimedia network costs and profits

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tahkokorpi, M.; Falch, Morten; Skouby, Knud Erik

    This deliverable describes the techno-economic business model developed in EURORIM WP3 and presents the refined results of the multimedia service delivery cost-profit calculations......This deliverable describes the techno-economic business model developed in EURORIM WP3 and presents the refined results of the multimedia service delivery cost-profit calculations...

  16. Refining and petrochemicals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benazzi, E.

    2003-01-01

    Down sharply in 2002, refining margins showed a clear improvement in the first half-year of 2003. As a result, the earnings reported by oil companies for financial year 2002 were significantly lower than in 2001, but the prospects are brighter for 2003. In the petrochemicals sector, slow demand and higher feedstock prices eroded margins in 2002, especially in Europe and the United States. The financial results for the first part of 2003 seem to indicate that sector profitability will not improve before 2004. (author)

  17. Refining of biodiesel by ceramic membrane separation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Yong; Ou, Shiyi; Tan, Yanlai; Tang, Shuze [Department of Food Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632 (China); Wang, Xingguo; Liu, Yuanfa [School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214112 (China)

    2009-03-15

    A ceramic membrane separation process for biodiesel refining was developed to reduce the considerable usage of water needed in the conventional water washing process. Crude biodiesel produced by refined palm oil was micro-filtered by ceramic membranes of the pore size of 0.6, 0.2 and 0.1 {mu}m to remove the residual soap and free glycerol, at the transmembrane pressure of 0.15 MPa and temperature of 60 C. The flux through membrane maintained at 300 L m{sup -} {sup 2} h{sup -} {sup 1} when the volumetric concentrated ratio reached 4. The content of potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium in the whole permeate was 1.40, 1.78, 0.81 and 0.20 mg/kg respectively, as determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. These values are lower than the EN 14538 specifications. The residual free glycerol in the permeate was estimated by water extraction, its value was 0.0108 wt.%. This ceramic membrane technology was a potential environmental process for the refining of biodiesel. (author)

  18. Production of Al-Ti-C grain refiners with the addition of elemental carbon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gezer, Berke Turgay; Toptan, Fatih; Daglilar, Sibel; Kerti, Isil

    2010-01-01

    Grain refining process used in aluminium alloys, has an important role for preventing columnar, coarse grains and encouraging fine, equiaxed grain formation. Al-Ti-B grain refiners are widely used as aluminium grain refiners despite the problems in application Al-Ti-C refiners have an increasing demand in recent years. In the present work, Al-Ti-C grain refiners with different Ti:C ratios were produced by insitu method with the addition of elemental carbon. Microstructures were characterised by optic microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The effects of temperature, holding time and Ti:C ratio on the grain refinement process were investigated and optimum conditions were determined.

  19. European oil refining: strategies for a competitive future

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    MacDonald, James.

    1997-07-01

    European Oil Refining investigates how the industry came to be in crisis and what the future holds. As well as an extensive analysis of past and present market shifts, the report predicts likely future developments and their consequences for investors. The report reviews the European oil sector in a global context, calculates the cost to refiners of key environmental legislation, assesses the problems caused by changing product demand and crude supply, examines possible solutions to the problems of low margins and overcapacity, evaluates the key players' main strategies to increase their competitiveness, analyses the western European oil refining industry by country, details the refinery operations of the major countries of central and eastern Europe, profiles 15 of the major oil companies and estimates the increase in investment required as a result of legislative and demand changes. (author)

  20. Current research progress in grain refinement of cast magnesium alloys: A review article

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ali, Yahia; Qiu, Dong; Jiang, Bin; Pan, Fusheng; Zhang, Ming-Xing

    2015-01-01

    Grain refinement of cast magnesium alloys, particularly in magnesium–aluminium (Mg–Al) based alloys, has been an active research topic in the past two decades, because it has been considered as one of the most effective approaches to simultaneously increase the strength, ductility and formability. The development of new grain refiners was normally based on the theories/models that were established through comprehensive and considerable studies of grain refinement in cast Al alloys. Generally, grain refinement in cast Al can be achieved through either inoculation treatment, which is a process of adding, or in situ forming, foreign particles to promote heterogeneous nucleation rate, or restricting grain growth by controlling the constitutional supercooling or both. But, the concrete and tangible grain refinement mechanism in cast metals is still not fully understood and there are a number of controversies. Therefore, most of the new developed grain refiners for Mg–Al based alloys are not as efficient as the commercially available ones, such as zirconium in non-Al containing Mg alloys. To facilitate the research in grain refinement of cast magnesium alloys, this review starts with highlighting the theoretical aspects of grain refinement in cast metals, followed by reviewing the latest research progress in grain refinement of magnesium alloys in terms of the solute effect and potent nucleants

  1. Current research progress in grain refinement of cast magnesium alloys: A review article

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ali, Yahia; Qiu, Dong [School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia); Jiang, Bin; Pan, Fusheng [College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030 (China); Zhang, Ming-Xing, E-mail: Mingxing.Zhang@uq.edu.au [School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072 (Australia)

    2015-01-15

    Grain refinement of cast magnesium alloys, particularly in magnesium–aluminium (Mg–Al) based alloys, has been an active research topic in the past two decades, because it has been considered as one of the most effective approaches to simultaneously increase the strength, ductility and formability. The development of new grain refiners was normally based on the theories/models that were established through comprehensive and considerable studies of grain refinement in cast Al alloys. Generally, grain refinement in cast Al can be achieved through either inoculation treatment, which is a process of adding, or in situ forming, foreign particles to promote heterogeneous nucleation rate, or restricting grain growth by controlling the constitutional supercooling or both. But, the concrete and tangible grain refinement mechanism in cast metals is still not fully understood and there are a number of controversies. Therefore, most of the new developed grain refiners for Mg–Al based alloys are not as efficient as the commercially available ones, such as zirconium in non-Al containing Mg alloys. To facilitate the research in grain refinement of cast magnesium alloys, this review starts with highlighting the theoretical aspects of grain refinement in cast metals, followed by reviewing the latest research progress in grain refinement of magnesium alloys in terms of the solute effect and potent nucleants.

  2. NMR structural refinement of an extrahelical adenosine tridecamer d(CGCAGAATTCGCG)2 via a hybrid relaxation matrix procedure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nikonowicz, E.P.; Meadows, R.P.; Gorenstein, D.G.

    1990-01-01

    Until very recently interproton distances from NOESY experiments have been derived solely from the two-spin approximation method. Unfortunately, even at short mixing times, there is a significant error in many of these distances. A complete relaxation matrix approach employing a matrix eigenvalue/eigenvector solution to the Bloch equations avoids the approximation of the two-spin method. The authors calculated the structure of an extrahelical adenosine tridecamer oligodeoxyribonucleotide duplex, d-(CGCAGAATTCGCG) 2 , by an iterative refinement approach using a hybrid relaxation matrix method combined with restrained molecular dynamics calculations. Distances from the 2D NOESY spectra have been calculated from the relaxation rate matrix which has been evaluated from a hybrid NOESY volume matrix comprising elements from the experiment and those calculated from an initial structure. The hybrid matrix derived distances have then been used in a restrained molecular dynamics procedure to obtain a new structure that better approximates the NOESY spectra. The resulting partially refined structure is then used to calculate an improved theoretical NOESY volume matrix which is once again merged with the experimental matrix until refinement is complete. Although the crystal structure of the tridecamer clearly shows the extrahelical adenosine looped out way from the duplex, the NOESY distance restrained hybrid matrix/molecular dynamics structural refinement establishes that the extrahelical adenosine stacks into the duplex

  3. Analysis model for forecasting extreme temperature using refined rank set pair

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiao Ling-Xia

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to improve the precision of forecasting extreme temperature time series, a refined rank set pair analysis model with a refined rank transformation function is proposed to improve precision of its prediction. The measured values of the annual highest temperature of two China’s cities, Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang, in July are taken to examine the performance of a refined rank set pair model.

  4. Potency of high-intensity ultrasonic treatment for grain refinement of magnesium alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ramirez, A.; Qian Ma; Davis, B.; Wilks, T.; StJohn, D.H.

    2008-01-01

    High-intensity ultrasonic treatment (UT) for grain refinement of magnesium alloys has been investigated using a novel theoretical approach in order to better understand its grain-refining potential and the mechanism of nucleation. The process demonstrated significantly superior grain-refining potency to carbon inoculation for Al-containing magnesium alloys but inferior potency to zirconium for Al-free alloys. Details revealed by applying the theoretical approach to ultrasonic grain refinement provide new clues to understanding the mechanism of grain nucleation by UT

  5. An Emergency Georeferencing Framework for GF-4 Imagery Based on GCP Prediction and Dynamic RPC Refinement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pengfei Li

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available GaoFen-4 (GF-4 imagery has very potential in terms of emergency response due to its gazing mode. However, only poor geometric accuracy can be obtained using the rational polynomial coefficient (RPC parameters provided, making ground control points (GCPs necessary for emergency response. However, selecting GCPs is traditionally time-consuming, labor-intensive, and not fully reliable. This is mainly due to the facts that (1 manual GCP selection is time-consuming and cumbersome because of too many human interventions, especially for the first few GCPs; (2 typically, GF-4 gives planar array imagery acquired at rather large tilt angles, and the distortion introduces problems in image matching; (3 reference data will not always be available, especially under emergency circumstances. This paper provides a novel emergency georeferencing framework for GF-4 Level 1 imagery. The key feature is GCP prediction based on dynamic RPC refinement, which is able to predict even the first GCP and the prediction will be dynamically refined as the selection goes on. This is done by two techniques: (1 GCP prediction using RPC parameters and (2 dynamic RPC refinement using as few as only one GCP. Besides, online map services are also adopted to automatically provide reference data. Experimental results show that (1 GCP predictions improve using dynamic RPC refinement; (2 GCP selection becomes more efficient with GCP prediction; (3 the integration of online map services constitutes a good example for emergency response.

  6. Trends in heavy oil production and refining in California

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olsen, D.K.; Ramzel, E.B.; Pendergrass, R.A. II.

    1992-07-01

    This report is one of a series of publications assessing the feasibility of increasing domestic heavy oil production and is part of a study being conducted for the US Department of Energy. This report summarizes trends in oil production and refining in Canada. Heavy oil (10 degrees to 20 degrees API gravity) production in California has increased from 20% of the state's total oil production in the early 1940s to 70% in the late 1980s. In each of the three principal petroleum producing districts (Los Angeles Basin, Coastal Basin, and San Joaquin Valley) oil production has peaked then declined at different times throughout the past 30 years. Thermal production of heavy oil has contributed to making California the largest producer of oil by enhanced oil recovery processes in spite of low oil prices for heavy oil and stringent environmental regulation. Opening of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1, Elk Hills (CA) field in 1976, brought about a major new source of light oil at a time when light oil production had greatly declined. Although California is a major petroleum-consuming state, in 1989 the state used 13.3 billion gallons of gasoline or 11.5% of US demand but it contributed substantially to the Nation's energy production and refining capability. California is the recipient and refines most of Alaska's 1.7 million barrel per day oil production. With California production, Alaskan oil, and imports brought into California for refining, California has an excess of oil and refined products and is a net exporter to other states. The local surplus of oil inhibits exploitation of California heavy oil resources even though the heavy oil resources exist. Transportation, refining, and competition in the market limit full development of California heavy oil resources

  7. Solvent refined coal studies: effects and characterization of treated solvent refined coal effluent. Progress report, FY 1977

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Becker, C.D.; Woodfield, W.G.; Strand, J.A.

    1978-07-01

    The Freshwater Sciences Section of PNL has initiated biologically oriented studies at the P and M solvent refined coal (SRC) pilot plant on the Fort Lewis Reservation in western Washington. Essentially, the study objectives are to identify residual components in the treated SRC process and assess potential for adverse impact on water quality and aquatic biota. Since inception of research in mid-1976, six static toxicity tests with treated SRC process effluent have been conducted. Toxic components, not yet specifically identified, sometimes occur in the effluent. It is believed these components involve organic hydrocarbons of the phenol and cresol groups. Analyses have been obtained on inorganic and organic constituents in partially-treated and treated process effluent. Concentrations of inorganics identified in the effluent did not differ greatly from their concentrations in Lake Sequalitchew or SRC plant tap water, but the low concentrations may be due primarily to dilution with freshwater before discharge. Organics identified in the effluent are similar to those found in samples contaminated with petroleum, and involve many complex hydrocarbons.

  8. Drugs Approved for Breast Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Ask about Your Treatment Research Drugs Approved for Breast Cancer This page lists cancer drugs approved by the ... are not listed here. Drugs Approved to Prevent Breast Cancer Evista (Raloxifene Hydrochloride) Raloxifene Hydrochloride Tamoxifen Citrate Drugs ...

  9. Fetching and Parsing Data from the Web with OpenRefine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evan Peter Williamson

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available OpenRefine is a powerful tool for exploring, cleaning, and transforming data. An earlier Programming Historian lesson, “Cleaning Data with OpenRefine”, introduced the basic functionality of Refine to efficiently discover and correct inconsistency in a data set. Building on those essential data wrangling skills, this lesson focuses on Refine’s ability to fetch URLs and parse web content. Examples introduce some of the advanced features to transform and enhance a data set including: - fetch URLs using Refine - construct URL queries to retrieve information from a simple web API - parse HTML and JSON responses to extract relevant data - use array functions to manipulate string values - use Jython to extend Refine’s functionality It will be helpful to have basic familiarity with OpenRefine, HTML, and programming concepts such as variables and loops to complete this lesson.

  10. Drugs Approved for Thyroid Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Ask about Your Treatment Research Drugs Approved for Thyroid Cancer This page lists cancer drugs approved by the ... that are not listed here. Drugs Approved for Thyroid Cancer Cabozantinib-S-Malate Caprelsa (Vandetanib) Cometriq (Cabozantinib-S-Malate) Doxorubicin ...

  11. Genomic multiple sequence alignments: refinement using a genetic algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lefkowitz Elliot J

    2005-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Genomic sequence data cannot be fully appreciated in isolation. Comparative genomics – the practice of comparing genomic sequences from different species – plays an increasingly important role in understanding the genotypic differences between species that result in phenotypic differences as well as in revealing patterns of evolutionary relationships. One of the major challenges in comparative genomics is producing a high-quality alignment between two or more related genomic sequences. In recent years, a number of tools have been developed for aligning large genomic sequences. Most utilize heuristic strategies to identify a series of strong sequence similarities, which are then used as anchors to align the regions between the anchor points. The resulting alignment is globally correct, but in many cases is suboptimal locally. We describe a new program, GenAlignRefine, which improves the overall quality of global multiple alignments by using a genetic algorithm to improve local regions of alignment. Regions of low quality are identified, realigned using the program T-Coffee, and then refined using a genetic algorithm. Because a better COFFEE (Consistency based Objective Function For alignmEnt Evaluation score generally reflects greater alignment quality, the algorithm searches for an alignment that yields a better COFFEE score. To improve the intrinsic slowness of the genetic algorithm, GenAlignRefine was implemented as a parallel, cluster-based program. Results We tested the GenAlignRefine algorithm by running it on a Linux cluster to refine sequences from a simulation, as well as refine a multiple alignment of 15 Orthopoxvirus genomic sequences approximately 260,000 nucleotides in length that initially had been aligned by Multi-LAGAN. It took approximately 150 minutes for a 40-processor Linux cluster to optimize some 200 fuzzy (poorly aligned regions of the orthopoxvirus alignment. Overall sequence identity increased only

  12. Need for refining capacity creates opportunities for producers in Middle East

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ali, M.S.S.

    1994-01-01

    Oil industry interest in refining has revived in the past few years in response to rising oil consumption. The trend creates opportunities, for countries in the Middle East, which do not own refining assets nearly in proportion to their crude oil reserved. By closing this gap between reserves and refining capacity, the countries can ease some of the instability now characteristic of the oil market. Some major oil producing countries have begun to move downstream. During the 1980s, Venezuela, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries acquired refining assets through direct total purchase or joint ventures. Nevertheless, the oil industry remains largely unintegrated, with the Middle East holding two thirds of worldwide oil reserves but only a small share downstream. As worldwide refining capacity swings from a period of surplus toward one in which the need for new capacity will be built. The paper discusses background of the situation, shrinking surplus, investment requirements, sources of capital, and shipping concerns

  13. A grid-enabled web service for low-resolution crystal structure refinement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Donovan, Daniel J; Stokes-Rees, Ian; Nam, Yunsun; Blacklow, Stephen C; Schröder, Gunnar F; Brunger, Axel T; Sliz, Piotr

    2012-03-01

    Deformable elastic network (DEN) restraints have proved to be a powerful tool for refining structures from low-resolution X-ray crystallographic data sets. Unfortunately, optimal refinement using DEN restraints requires extensive calculations and is often hindered by a lack of access to sufficient computational resources. The DEN web service presented here intends to provide structural biologists with access to resources for running computationally intensive DEN refinements in parallel on the Open Science Grid, the US cyberinfrastructure. Access to the grid is provided through a simple and intuitive web interface integrated into the SBGrid Science Portal. Using this portal, refinements combined with full parameter optimization that would take many thousands of hours on standard computational resources can now be completed in several hours. An example of the successful application of DEN restraints to the human Notch1 transcriptional complex using the grid resource, and summaries of all submitted refinements, are presented as justification.

  14. Refining and petrochemicals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benazzi, E.; Alario, F.

    2004-01-01

    In 2003, refining margins showed a clear improvement that continued throughout the first three quarters of 2004. Oil companies posted significantly higher earnings in 2003 compared to 2002, with the results of first quarter 2004 confirming this trend. Due to higher feedstock prices, the implementation of new capacity and more intense competition, the petrochemicals industry was not able to boost margins in 2003. In such difficult business conditions, aggravated by soaring crude prices, the petrochemicals industry is not likely to see any improvement in profitability before the second half of 2004. (author)

  15. Initiating technical refinements in high-level golfers: Evidence for contradictory procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carson, Howie J; Collins, Dave; Richards, Jim

    2016-01-01

    When developing motor skills there are several outcomes available to an athlete depending on their skill status and needs. Whereas the skill acquisition and performance literature is abundant, an under-researched outcome relates to the refinement of already acquired and well-established skills. Contrary to current recommendations for athletes to employ an external focus of attention and a representative practice design,  Carson and  Collins' (2011) [Refining and regaining skills in fixation/diversification stage performers: The Five-A Model. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4, 146-167. doi: 10.1080/1750984x.2011.613682 ] Five-A Model requires an initial narrowed internal focus on the technical aspect needing refinement: the implication being that environments which limit external sources of information would be beneficial to achieving this task. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to (1) provide a literature-based explanation for why techniques counter to current recommendations may be (temporarily) appropriate within the skill refinement process and (2) provide empirical evidence for such efficacy. Kinematic data and self-perception reports are provided from high-level golfers attempting to consciously initiate technical refinements while executing shots onto a driving range and into a close proximity net (i.e. with limited knowledge of results). It was hypothesised that greater control over intended refinements would occur when environmental stimuli were reduced in the most unrepresentative practice condition (i.e. hitting into a net). Results confirmed this, as evidenced by reduced intra-individual movement variability for all participants' individual refinements, despite little or no difference in mental effort reported. This research offers coaches guidance when working with performers who may find conscious recall difficult during the skill refinement process.

  16. Grain refinement through severe plastic deformation (SPD) processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Izairi, N.; Vevecka - Priftaj, A.

    2012-01-01

    There is considerable current interest in processing metallic samples through procedures involving the imposition of severe plastic deformation (SPD). These procedures lead to very significant grain refinement to the submicrometer or even the nanometer level, resulting in advanced physical properties. Among various SPD processes, Equal Channel Angular Pressing, High pressure Torsion and Accumulated Roll Bonding have been widely used for many metals and alloys. In the present work, we present an overview of the most used methods of SPD for grain refinement and the production of bulk nano structured materials with enhancement in their mechanical and functional properties. In order to examine the potential for using ECAP to refine the grain size and improve the mechanical properties, two commercial 5754 Al alloy and AA 3004 , were selected for study. Processing by ECAP gives a reduction in the grain size and an increase in the microhardness. (Author)

  17. Future prospects for palm oil refining and modifications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gibon Véronique

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Palm oil is rich in minor components that impart unique nutritional properties and need to be preserved. In this context, refining technologies have been improved, with the dual temperature deodorizer, the double condensing unit and the ice condensing system. The DOBI is a good tool to assess quality of the crude palm oil and its ability to be properly refined. Specially refined oils open a market for new high quality products (golden palm oil, red palm oil, white soaps, etc.. Palm oil is a good candidate for the multi-step dry fractionation process, aiming to the production of commodity oils and specialty fats (cocoa butter replacers. New technological developments allow quality and yield improvements. Palm oil and fractions are also valuable feedstock for enzymatic interesterification in which applications are for commodity oil (low-trans margarines and shortenings and for special products (cocoa butter equivalents, infant formulation, ….

  18. Unilever food safety assurance system for refined vegetable oils and fats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    van Duijn Gerrit

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available The Unilever Food Safety Assurance system for refined oils and fats is based on risk assessments for the presence of contaminants or pesticide residues in crude oils, and refining process studies to validate the removal of these components. Crude oil risk assessments were carried out by combining supply chain visits, and analyses of the contaminant and pesticide residue levels in a large number of crude oil samples. Contaminants like poly-aromatic hydrocarbons and hydrocarbons of mineral origin, and pesticide residues can largely be removed by refining. For many years, this Food Safety Assurance System has proven to be effective in controlling contaminant levels in refined vegetable oils and fats.

  19. Hirshfeld atom refinement for modelling strong hydrogen bonds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woińska, Magdalena; Jayatilaka, Dylan; Spackman, Mark A; Edwards, Alison J; Dominiak, Paulina M; Woźniak, Krzysztof; Nishibori, Eiji; Sugimoto, Kunihisa; Grabowsky, Simon

    2014-09-01

    High-resolution low-temperature synchrotron X-ray diffraction data of the salt L-phenylalaninium hydrogen maleate are used to test the new automated iterative Hirshfeld atom refinement (HAR) procedure for the modelling of strong hydrogen bonds. The HAR models used present the first examples of Z' > 1 treatments in the framework of wavefunction-based refinement methods. L-Phenylalaninium hydrogen maleate exhibits several hydrogen bonds in its crystal structure, of which the shortest and the most challenging to model is the O-H...O intramolecular hydrogen bond present in the hydrogen maleate anion (O...O distance is about 2.41 Å). In particular, the reconstruction of the electron density in the hydrogen maleate moiety and the determination of hydrogen-atom properties [positions, bond distances and anisotropic displacement parameters (ADPs)] are the focus of the study. For comparison to the HAR results, different spherical (independent atom model, IAM) and aspherical (free multipole model, MM; transferable aspherical atom model, TAAM) X-ray refinement techniques as well as results from a low-temperature neutron-diffraction experiment are employed. Hydrogen-atom ADPs are furthermore compared to those derived from a TLS/rigid-body (SHADE) treatment of the X-ray structures. The reference neutron-diffraction experiment reveals a truly symmetric hydrogen bond in the hydrogen maleate anion. Only with HAR is it possible to freely refine hydrogen-atom positions and ADPs from the X-ray data, which leads to the best electron-density model and the closest agreement with the structural parameters derived from the neutron-diffraction experiment, e.g. the symmetric hydrogen position can be reproduced. The multipole-based refinement techniques (MM and TAAM) yield slightly asymmetric positions, whereas the IAM yields a significantly asymmetric position.

  20. Oil price scenarios and refining profitability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sweeney, B.

    1993-01-01

    Currently refining profitability is low because there has been an overbuilding of conversion capacity in Western Europe in the last round. Oil marketing, the chemicals business and the fundamental economy itself are at low points in their cycles which have not coincided, at least in the UK, since 1975. Against that gloomy background, it is predicted that downstream profitability will recover in the mid-1990s. Crude oil prices will remain low until the call on OPEC crude increases again and takes up the capacity which has been brought on stream in response to the Gulf War. When this happens, it is likely to trigger another price spike and another round of investment in production capacity. Environmentally driven investments in desulphurisation or emissions reduction will be poorly remunerated all the way through the value chain. Refining margins will recover when white oil demand growth tightens up the need for conversion capacity. Marketing will need to reduce the retail network overcapacity in the mature markets if it is to improve its profitability. In this period of low profitability, even with the light at the end of the tunnel for refiners in the middle of the decade, the industry structure is under threat. There is a strong argument for new modes of competitive behaviour which are backed by strong elements of cooperation. (author)

  1. The Analysis of the Refined Financial Management of Modern Enterprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Ran

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper briefly introduces the concept of the refined financial management, elaborates on its characteristics and puts forward some main points about it. It also comes up with some personal suggestions for reference on effective ways of refining financial management.

  2. Refined analysis of RGHWs of code pairs coming from Garcia-Stichtenoth’s second tower

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olav Geil

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Asymptotically good sequences of ramp secret sharing schemes were given in [5] by using one-point algebraic geometric codes defined from asymptotically good towers of function fields. Their security is given by the relative generalized Hamming weights of the corresponding codes. In this paper we demonstrate how to obtain refined information on the RGHWs when the codimension of the codes is small. For general codimension, we give an improved estimate for the highest RGHW.

  3. Digital mammography. Why hasn't it been approved for U.S. hospitals?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2000-01-01

    Mammography is the only major imaging technique still unavailable in the United States in digital form. This is because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been unable to devise an effective method for manufacturers to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of digital mammography systems. As a result, the agency has been unable to approve any of those systems for marketing in the United States. In this Regulatory Update, we describe FDA's recent efforts to help manufacturers obtain approval and the reasons those efforts have so far proved ineffective.

  4. Profex: a graphical user interface for the Rietveld refinement program BGMN

    OpenAIRE

    Doebelin, Nicola; Kleeberg, Reinhard

    2015-01-01

    Profex is a graphical user interface for the Rietveld refinement program BGMN. Its interface focuses on preserving BGMN’s powerful and flexible scripting features by giving direct access to BGMN input files. Very efficient workflows for single or batch refinements are achieved by managing refinement control files and structure files, by providing dialogues and shortcuts for many operations, by performing operations in the background, and by providing import filters for CIF and XML crystal str...

  5. Enhancement of signal sensitivity in a heterogeneous neural network refined from synaptic plasticity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li Xiumin; Small, Michael, E-mail: ensmall@polyu.edu.h, E-mail: 07901216r@eie.polyu.edu.h [Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon (Hong Kong)

    2010-08-15

    Long-term synaptic plasticity induced by neural activity is of great importance in informing the formation of neural connectivity and the development of the nervous system. It is reasonable to consider self-organized neural networks instead of prior imposition of a specific topology. In this paper, we propose a novel network evolved from two stages of the learning process, which are respectively guided by two experimentally observed synaptic plasticity rules, i.e. the spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) mechanism and the burst-timing-dependent plasticity (BTDP) mechanism. Due to the existence of heterogeneity in neurons that exhibit different degrees of excitability, a two-level hierarchical structure is obtained after the synaptic refinement. This self-organized network shows higher sensitivity to afferent current injection compared with alternative archetypal networks with different neural connectivity. Statistical analysis also demonstrates that it has the small-world properties of small shortest path length and high clustering coefficients. Thus the selectively refined connectivity enhances the ability of neuronal communications and improves the efficiency of signal transmission in the network.

  6. Robust stereo matching with trinary cross color census and triple image-based refinements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Ting-An; Lu, Xiao; Yang, Jar-Ferr

    2017-12-01

    For future 3D TV broadcasting systems and navigation applications, it is necessary to have accurate stereo matching which could precisely estimate depth map from two distanced cameras. In this paper, we first suggest a trinary cross color (TCC) census transform, which can help to achieve accurate disparity raw matching cost with low computational cost. The two-pass cost aggregation (TPCA) is formed to compute the aggregation cost, then the disparity map can be obtained by a range winner-take-all (RWTA) process and a white hole filling procedure. To further enhance the accuracy performance, a range left-right checking (RLRC) method is proposed to classify the results as correct, mismatched, or occluded pixels. Then, the image-based refinements for the mismatched and occluded pixels are proposed to refine the classified errors. Finally, the image-based cross voting and a median filter are employed to complete the fine depth estimation. Experimental results show that the proposed semi-global stereo matching system achieves considerably accurate disparity maps with reasonable computation cost.

  7. Enhancement of signal sensitivity in a heterogeneous neural network refined from synaptic plasticity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Xiumin; Small, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Long-term synaptic plasticity induced by neural activity is of great importance in informing the formation of neural connectivity and the development of the nervous system. It is reasonable to consider self-organized neural networks instead of prior imposition of a specific topology. In this paper, we propose a novel network evolved from two stages of the learning process, which are respectively guided by two experimentally observed synaptic plasticity rules, i.e. the spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) mechanism and the burst-timing-dependent plasticity (BTDP) mechanism. Due to the existence of heterogeneity in neurons that exhibit different degrees of excitability, a two-level hierarchical structure is obtained after the synaptic refinement. This self-organized network shows higher sensitivity to afferent current injection compared with alternative archetypal networks with different neural connectivity. Statistical analysis also demonstrates that it has the small-world properties of small shortest path length and high clustering coefficients. Thus the selectively refined connectivity enhances the ability of neuronal communications and improves the efficiency of signal transmission in the network.

  8. Mesh refinement of simulation with the AID riser transmission gamma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lima Filho, Hilario J.B. de; Benachour, Mohand; Dantas, Carlos C.; Brito, Marcio F.P.; Santos, Valdemir A. dos

    2013-01-01

    Type reactors Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFBR) vertical, in which the particulate and gaseous phases have flows upward (riser) have been widely used in gasification processes, combustion and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC). These biphasic reactors (gas-solid) efficiency depends largely on their hydrodynamic characteristics, and shows different behaviors in the axial and radial directions. The solids axial distribution is observed by the higher concentration in the base, getting more diluted toward the top. Radially, the solids concentration is characterized as core-annular, in which the central region is highly diluted, consisting of dispersed particles and fluid. In the present work developed a two-dimensional geometry (2D) techniques through simulations in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to predict the gas-solid flow in the riser type CFBR through transient modeling, based on the kinetic theory of granular flow . The refinement of computational meshes provide larger amounts of information on the parameters studied, but may increase the processing time of the simulations. A minimum number of cells applied to the mesh construction was obtained by testing five meshes. The validation of the hydrodynamic parameters was performed using a range of 241Am source and detector NaI (Tl). The numerical results were provided consistent with the experimental data, indicating that the refined computational mesh in a controlled manner, improve the approximation of the expected results. (author)

  9. Gravimetric and volumetric determination of the purity of electrolytically refined silver and the produced silver nitrate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ačanski Marijana M.

    2007-01-01

    purity of electrolytically refined silver obtained volumetrically, according to Volhard, was 99.49%. The results suggest that the purity of electrolytically refined silver was higher than 99%. After all of these determinations, the purity of electrolytically refined silver was examined by atomic absorption spectrometry and the results confirmed that the purity of electrolytically refined silver was 99.99%. Electrolytically refined silver contained other metals: Mn, Cu, Fe, Zn, Pb, Cd, and the contents of these metals were: 1.15 ppm; 0.75 ppm; 0.65 ppm; 1.82 ppm; < 0.07 ppm and < 0.01 ppm, respectively.

  10. Investment in exploration-production and refining 2014

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hureau, Geoffroy; Serbutoviez, Sylvain; Silva, Constancio; Maisonnier, Guy

    2014-11-01

    IFPEN analyses in this study the 2014 evolution of global investment in the field of exploration-production and refining: 1 - Changes in oil and gas prices: General background: weak economy and global disorder, Oil prices: fundamentals that could help to relax oil prices?, Gas prices: fall in Europe, stability in Japan, increase in the US; 2 - Exploration and production - Slowdown in growth: moderate rise in investment in 2014, exploration - Discoveries in 2014, Russia: sanctions will have limited short term impact, implications of the reforms to the Mexican energy sector; 3 - Drilling activity and market throughout the world: onshore and offshore drilling (Number of wells drilled throughout the world, Number of onshore wells, Number of offshore wells, Drilling, equipment and well services markets, Onshore drilling market, Offshore drilling market, Fracking market), Geophysical activity and the geophysical market, Offshore construction activity and the offshore construction market (Offshore construction activities, Rig construction activity, Floating Platform Systems (FPS), Sub-sea constructions, Offshore construction market); 4 - Refining - Significant increase in spending: increase in industrial costs, a slowdown in the increase in excess capacity in the future?, A bleak future for the european refining sector

  11. P-Refinement and P-Threads (Preprint)

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Dong, Steven; Karniadakis, George E

    2002-01-01

    ...]) in d dimensions, which is higher than lower-order methods. In this paper, we demonstrate that by employing multi-threading within MPI processes we manage to counter- balance the cost increase associated with P-refinement...

  12. Ab initio structure determination and refinement of a scorpion protein toxin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, G D; Blessing, R H; Ealick, S E; Fontecilla-Camps, J C; Hauptman, H A; Housset, D; Langs, D A; Miller, R

    1997-09-01

    The structure of toxin II from the scorpion Androctonus australis Hector has been determined ab initio by direct methods using SnB at 0.96 A resolution. For the purpose of this structure redetermination, undertaken as a test of the minimal function and the SnB program, the identity and sequence of the protein was withheld from part of the research team. A single solution obtained from 1 619 random atom trials was clearly revealed by the bimodal distribution of the final value of the minimal function associated with each individual trial. Five peptide fragments were identified from a conservative analysis of the initial E-map, and following several refinement cycles with X-PLOR, a model was built of the complete structure. At the end of the X-PLOR refinement, the sequence was compared with the published sequence and 57 of the 64 residues had been correctly identified. Two errors in sequence resulted from side chains with similar size while the rest of the errors were a result of severe disorder or high thermal motion in the side chains. Given the amino-acid sequence, it is estimated that the initial E-map could have produced a model containing 99% of all main-chain and 81% of side-chain atoms. The structure refinement was completed with PROFFT, including the contributions of protein H atoms, and converged at a residual of 0.158 for 30 609 data with F >or= 2sigma(F) in the resolution range 8.0-0.964 A. The final model consisted of 518 non-H protein atoms (36 disordered), 407 H atoms, and 129 water molecules (43 with occupancies less than unity). This total of 647 non-H atoms represents the largest light-atom structure solved to date.

  13. A Semi-Supervised Approach for Refining Transcriptional Signatures of Drug Response and Repositioning Predictions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesco Iorio

    Full Text Available We present a novel strategy to identify drug-repositioning opportunities. The starting point of our method is the generation of a signature summarising the consensual transcriptional response of multiple human cell lines to a compound of interest (namely the seed compound. This signature can be derived from data in existing databases, such as the connectivity-map, and it is used at first instance to query a network interlinking all the connectivity-map compounds, based on the similarity of their transcriptional responses. This provides a drug neighbourhood, composed of compounds predicted to share some effects with the seed one. The original signature is then refined by systematically reducing its overlap with the transcriptional responses induced by drugs in this neighbourhood that are known to share a secondary effect with the seed compound. Finally, the drug network is queried again with the resulting refined signatures and the whole process is carried on for a number of iterations. Drugs in the final refined neighbourhood are then predicted to exert the principal mode of action of the seed compound. We illustrate our approach using paclitaxel (a microtubule stabilising agent as seed compound. Our method predicts that glipizide and splitomicin perturb microtubule function in human cells: a result that could not be obtained through standard signature matching methods. In agreement, we find that glipizide and splitomicin reduce interphase microtubule growth rates and transiently increase the percentage of mitotic cells-consistent with our prediction. Finally, we validated the refined signatures of paclitaxel response by mining a large drug screening dataset, showing that human cancer cell lines whose basal transcriptional profile is anti-correlated to them are significantly more sensitive to paclitaxel and docetaxel.

  14. Refining in the 1990's: Restructuring and resurgence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cobb, C.B.

    1994-01-01

    After two years of uncertainty in dealing with the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments coupled with the shutdown of 5% of total US refining capacity, the industry is now positioning itself for continued operations throughout the remainder of the decade. However, refineries are experiencing a shift in the mode of operations to a period of more restructuring (closings, ventures, alliances, etc.) followed by a resurgence in financial performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current industry and highlight the reasons for industry's current plans. The authors also speculate about the strategies companies will choose to better their financial performance. Fundamentally, the characteristics of a mature domestic business remain the driving force that shape decision making. In responding to the maturing of refining, the authors suggest that refiners will change the way they conduct business over the next few years. Building on the theme of the 1993 NPRA paper, strategies will target the domestic side of the business while simultaneously shifting to a global perspective

  15. Refining SCJ Mission Specifications into Parallel Handler Designs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frank Zeyda

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Safety-Critical Java (SCJ is a recent technology that restricts the execution and memory model of Java in such a way that applications can be statically analysed and certified for their real-time properties and safe use of memory. Our interest is in the development of comprehensive and sound techniques for the formal specification, refinement, design, and implementation of SCJ programs, using a correct-by-construction approach. As part of this work, we present here an account of laws and patterns that are of general use for the refinement of SCJ mission specifications into designs of parallel handlers used in the SCJ programming paradigm. Our notation is a combination of languages from the Circus family, supporting state-rich reactive models with the addition of class objects and real-time properties. Our work is a first step to elicit laws of programming for SCJ and fits into a refinement strategy that we have developed previously to derive SCJ programs.

  16. Assume-Guarantee Abstraction Refinement Meets Hybrid Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bogomolov, Sergiy; Frehse, Goran; Greitschus, Marius; Grosu, Radu; Pasareanu, Corina S.; Podelski, Andreas; Strump, Thomas

    2014-01-01

    Compositional verification techniques in the assume- guarantee style have been successfully applied to transition systems to efficiently reduce the search space by leveraging the compositional nature of the systems under consideration. We adapt these techniques to the domain of hybrid systems with affine dynamics. To build assumptions we introduce an abstraction based on location merging. We integrate the assume-guarantee style analysis with automatic abstraction refinement. We have implemented our approach in the symbolic hybrid model checker SpaceEx. The evaluation shows its practical potential. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work combining assume-guarantee reasoning with automatic abstraction-refinement in the context of hybrid automata.

  17. Macromolecular refinement by model morphing using non-atomic parameterizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowtan, Kevin; Agirre, Jon

    2018-02-01

    Refinement is a critical step in the determination of a model which explains the crystallographic observations and thus best accounts for the missing phase components. The scattering density is usually described in terms of atomic parameters; however, in macromolecular crystallography the resolution of the data is generally insufficient to determine the values of these parameters for individual atoms. Stereochemical and geometric restraints are used to provide additional information, but produce interrelationships between parameters which slow convergence, resulting in longer refinement times. An alternative approach is proposed in which parameters are not attached to atoms, but to regions of the electron-density map. These parameters can move the density or change the local temperature factor to better explain the structure factors. Varying the size of the region which determines the parameters at a particular position in the map allows the method to be applied at different resolutions without the use of restraints. Potential applications include initial refinement of molecular-replacement models with domain motions, and potentially the use of electron density from other sources such as electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) as the refinement model.

  18. Horn clause verification with convex polyhedral abstraction and tree automata-based refinement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kafle, Bishoksan; Gallagher, John Patrick

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we apply tree-automata techniques to refinement of abstract interpretation in Horn clause verification. We go beyond previous work on refining trace abstractions; firstly we handle tree automata rather than string automata and thereby can capture traces in any Horn clause derivations...... underlying the Horn clauses. Experiments using linear constraint problems and the abstract domain of convex polyhedra show that the refinement technique is practical and that iteration of abstract interpretation with tree automata-based refinement solves many challenging Horn clause verification problems. We...... compare the results with other state-of-the-art Horn clause verification tools....

  19. Refining capacity in Quebec : the Quebec market, industry viewpoint

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trudelle, F.

    2004-01-01

    Canada's second largest oil refinery is operated by Ultramar Ltd. in Levis, Quebec. The refinery, which supplies 45 per cent of all Quebec's petroleum, distributes its products to Quebec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces. The refinery currently produces 215,000 barrels per day. Ultramar is a division of Valero, an American firm which has a total refining capacity of 2.4 million barrels per day. A summary of the company's petroleum energy distribution, consumption, and reserves was presented and compared with the national and global position. It was noted that world demand for petroleum products increases yearly by 1 to 1.5 per cent while the demand for automobile fuel in North America increases by 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. In the last 10 years, world demand has increased by more than 22 per cent but refining capacity has only increased by 12 per cent. The average profitability of the refining industry from 1992 to 2002 was approximately 5.5 per cent, which limited investments in new refinery installations. Much of the industry's profits have been utilized to modify installations in order to reduce the sulphur content in gasoline and diesel fuels. Furthermore, the obtention of permits to construct new refining installations has become a major obstacle and the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol may signify a 30 per cent reduction in automotive fuel demand. Given this, there is currently some hesitation and uncertainty by the refining industry to proceed with new major installations. tabs., figs

  20. Comparison of geometrical isomerization of unsaturated fatty acids in selected commercially refined oils

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tasan, M.

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Four different commercially refined vegetable oils were analyzed by capillary gas-liquid chromatography for their trans fatty acid contents. The results obtained showed that the total trans FA contents in refined sunflower, corn, soybean, and hazelnut oils were 0.68 ± 0.41, 0.51 ± 0.24, 1.27 ± 0.57, and 0.26 ± 0.07% of total FA, respectively. The total trans FA comprised isomers of the C18:1, C18:2 and C18:3 FA. Meanwhile, five brands of the refined sunflower oil and two brands of hazelnut oil contained no measurable amounts of total trans C18:3 acids. The total trans C18:2 acid was the predominant trans FA found in the refined sunflower and corn oils, while trans polyunsaturated FAs for the refined soybean oils were found at high levels. However, total trans C18:1 acid was the major trans FA for refined hazelnut oils. The commercially refined vegetable oils with a relatively high total polyunsaturated FA contained considerable amounts of trans polyunsaturated isomers. This study indicates that it is necessary to optimize industrial deodorization, especially the time and temperature, for each different FA composition of oil used.

    Cuatro aceites vegetales refinados comerciales diferentes fueron analizados por cromatografía de gases para determinar el contenido en ácidos grasos trans. Los resultados obtenidos mostraron que el contenido total de los FA trans de aceites refinados de girasol, maíz, soja y avellana fueron 0.68 ± 0.41, 0.51 ± 0.24, 1.27 ± 0.57, y 0.26 ± 0.07% de FA totales, respetivamente. Los ácidos grasos totales trans comprenden a isómeros de FA C18:1, C18:2 y C18:3. Cinco marcas de aceites de girasol refinado y dos marcas de aceite de avellana contenían cantidades no medibles de ácidos trans C18:3 totales. Los ácidos C18:2 trans totales fueron los FA trans predominantes en el aceite de girasol y ma

  1. The refined biomimetic NeuroDigm GEL™ model of neuropathic pain in a mature rat [version 2; referees: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mary R. Hannaman

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Background: Many humans suffering with chronic neuropathic pain have no objective evidence of an etiological lesion or disease. Frequently their persistent pain occurs after the healing of a soft tissue injury. Based on clinical observations over time, our hypothesis was that after an injury in mammals the process of tissue repair could cause chronic neural pain. Our objectives were to create the delayed onset of neuropathic pain in rats with minimal nerve trauma using a physiologic hydrogel, and characterize the rats’ responses to known analgesics and a targeted biologic.   Methods: In mature male Sprague Dawley rats (age 9.5 months a percutaneous implant of tissue-derived hydrogel was placed in the musculofascial tunnel of the distal tibial nerve. Subcutaneous morphine (3 mg/kg, celecoxib (10 mg/kg, gabapentin (25 mg/kg and duloxetine (10 mg/kg were each screened in the model three times each over 5 months after pain behaviors developed. Sham and control groups were used in all screenings. A pilot study followed in which recombinant human erythropoietin (200 units was injected by the GEL™ neural procedure site.   Results: The GEL group gradually developed mechanical hypersensitivity lasting months. Morphine, initially effective, had less analgesia over time. Celecoxib produced no analgesia, while gabapentin and duloxetine at low doses demonstrated profound analgesia at all times tested. The injected erythropoietin markedly decreased bilateral pain behavior that had been present for over 4 months, p ≤ 0.001. Histology of the GEL group tibial nerve revealed a site of focal neural remodeling, with neural regeneration, as found in nerve biopsies of patients with neuropathic pain.   Conclusion: The refined NeuroDigm GEL™ model induces a neural response resulting in robust neuropathic pain behavior. The analgesic responses in this model reflect known responses of humans with neuropathic pain. The targeted recombinant human erythropoietin

  2. Reform of refined oil product pricing mechanism and energy rebound effect for passenger transportation in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Boqiang; Liu, Xia

    2013-01-01

    Improving energy efficiency is the primary method adopted by the Chinese government in an effort to achieve energy conservation target in the transport sector. However, the offsetting effect of energy rebound would greatly reduce its real energy-saving potentials. We set up a Linear Approximation of the Almost Ideal Demand System Model (LA-AIDS model) to estimate the rebound effect for passenger transportation in China. Real energy conservation effect of improving energy efficiency can also be obtained in the process. The result shows that the rebound effect is approximately 107.2%. This figure signifies the existence of ‘backfire effect’, indicating that efficiency improvement in practice does not always lead to energy-saving. We conclude that one important factor leading to the rebound effect, is the refined oil pricing mechanism. China's refined oil pricing mechanism has been subjected to criticism in recent years. The results of simulation analysis show that the rebound could be reduced to approximately 90.7% if the refined oil pricing mechanism is reformed. In this regard, we suggest further reforms in the current refined oil pricing mechanism. - Highlights: ► We set up the LA-AIDS model to estimate traffic service demand for urban residents. ► The size of the rebound effect for passenger transportation in China is evaluated. ► The rebound effect for passenger transportation in China is 107.2%. ► Reform of oil pricing could reduced the rebound to 90.7%. ► Reform of oil pricing might be an effective method for mitigating rebound effect

  3. Refining mineral oils

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1946-07-05

    A process is described refining raw oils such as mineral oils, shale oils, tar, their fractions and derivatives, by extraction with a selected solvent or a mixture of solvents containing water, forming a solvent more favorable for the hydrocarbons poor in hydrogen than for hydrocarbons rich in hydrogen, this process is characterized by the addition of an aiding solvent for the water which can be mixed or dissolved in the water and the solvent or in the dissolving mixture and increasing in this way the solubility of the water in the solvent or the dissolving mixture.

  4. Assessing food allergy risks from residual peanut protein in highly refined vegetable oil

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blom, W.M.; Kruizinga, A.G.; Rubingh, C.M.; Remington, B.C.; Crevel, R.W.R.; Houben, G.F.

    2017-01-01

    Refined vegetable oils including refined peanut oil are widely used in foods. Due to shared production processes, refined non-peanut vegetable oils can contain residual peanut proteins. We estimated the predicted number of allergic reactions to residual peanut proteins using probabilistic risk

  5. The changing face of U.S. refining: Ominous notes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    As environmental protection comes of age in the US, a complex series of structural changes is also expected - in enforcement bureaucracy, manufacturing, and in energy consumption. It is already quite obvious in the petroleum refining industry. A side effect may be the export of jobs. Buyouts and closures are expected, as is increased refined product import dependency. This issue updates expected changes in gasoline and distillate product requirements in the US, and reports some ominous statements from some of the oil industry's affected parties. This issue also presented the following: (1) the ED Refining Netback Data Series for the US Gulf and West Coasts, Rotterdam, and Singapore as of Jan. 24, 1992; and (2) the ED Fuel Price Tax Series for countries of the Eastern Hemisphere, Jan. 1992 edition

  6. Taiwan: refined need for consuming population

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayes, David.

    1995-01-01

    A brief discussion is given of the oil and gas industry in Taiwan. Topics covered include the possibility of privatization, refineries and refining contracts overseas, plans for a new petrochemical complex and an offshore submarine transmission pipeline. (UK)

  7. The cation inversion and magnetization in nanopowder zinc ferrite obtained by soft mechanochemical processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milutinović, A.; Lazarević, Z.; Jovalekić, Č.; Kuryliszyn-Kudelska, I.; Romčević, M.; Kostić, S.; Romčević, N.

    2013-01-01

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Nano powder of ZnFe 2 O 4 prepared by a soft mechanochemical route after 18 h milling. • Phase formation controlled by XRD, Raman spectroscopy and magnetic measurements. • Size, strain and cation inversion degree determined by Rietveld refinement. • We were able to estimate the degree of inversion at most 0.348 and 0.4. • Obtained extremely high values of saturation magnetizations at T = 4.5 K. - Abstract: Two zinc ferrite nanoparticle materials were prepared by the same method – soft mechanochemical synthesis, but starting from different powder mixtures: (1) Zn(OH) 2 /α-Fe 2 O 3 and (2) Zn(OH) 2 /Fe(OH) 3 . In both cases a single phase system was obtained after 18 h of milling. The progress of the synthesis was controlled by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, TEM and magnetic measurements. Analysis of the XRD patterns by Rietveld refinement allowed determination of the cation inversion degree for both obtained single phase ZnFe 2 O 4 samples. The sample obtained from mixture (1) has the cation inversion degree 0.3482 and the sample obtained from mixture (2) 0.400. Magnetization measurements were confirmed that the degrees of the inversion were well estimated. Comparison with published data shows that used method of synthesis gives nano powder samples with extremely high values of saturation magnetizations: sample (1) 78.3 emu g −1 and sample (2) 91.5 emu g −1 at T = 4.5 K

  8. Effect of some grain refiners on the mechanical properties of aluminum

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaid, A.I.O.

    2001-01-01

    It is well established that aluminum and its alloys are grain refined by some refractory metals to enhance their surface qualities and mechanical strengths. In this paper, the literature on grain refining, and its mechanism is reviewed and discussed. Also, the effect of grain refining of commercially pure aluminum by the addition of titanium, boron, vanadium, molybdenum, and zirconium is investigated. The effect of each of these elements on grain size, hardness and mechanical behavior is presented and discussed. It was found that the addition of any of these elements except zirconium resulted in enhancement of grain size, hardness and mechanical strength. An increase of 2.1 % in flow stress of Al grain refined by Ti+B was achieved by addition of 0.1 % V at 0.2 strain. (author)

  9. Refined 3d-3d correspondence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alday, Luis F.; Genolini, Pietro Benetti; Bullimore, Mathew; Loon, Mark van [Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Andrew Wiles Building,Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG (United Kingdom)

    2017-04-28

    We explore aspects of the correspondence between Seifert 3-manifolds and 3d N=2 supersymmetric theories with a distinguished abelian flavour symmetry. We give a prescription for computing the squashed three-sphere partition functions of such 3d N=2 theories constructed from boundary conditions and interfaces in a 4d N=2{sup ∗} theory, mirroring the construction of Seifert manifold invariants via Dehn surgery. This is extended to include links in the Seifert manifold by the insertion of supersymmetric Wilson-’t Hooft loops in the 4d N=2{sup ∗} theory. In the presence of a mass parameter for the distinguished flavour symmetry, we recover aspects of refined Chern-Simons theory with complex gauge group, and in particular construct an analytic continuation of the S-matrix of refined Chern-Simons theory.

  10. Using atomic energy in the oil refining and petrochemical industry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Feigin, E.A.; Barashkov, R.Ia.; Raud, E.A.

    1982-01-01

    A short description of the basic large scale processes for oil refining and petrochemistry in which nuclear reactors can be used is given. The possible industrial plans for using nuclear reactors are examined together with the problems in using the advances in atomic technology in oil refining and petrochemical processes.

  11. Refining borders of genome-rearrangements including repetitions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JA Arjona-Medina

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background DNA rearrangement events have been widely studied in comparative genomic for many years. The importance of these events resides not only in the study about relatedness among different species, but also to determine the mechanisms behind evolution. Although there are many methods to identify genome-rearrangements (GR, the refinement of their borders has become a huge challenge. Until now no accepted method exists to achieve accurate fine-tuning: i.e. the notion of breakpoint (BP is still an open issue, and despite repeated regions are vital to understand evolution they are not taken into account in most of the GR detection and refinement methods. Methods and results We propose a method to refine the borders of GR including repeated regions. Instead of removing these repetitions to facilitate computation, we take advantage of them using a consensus alignment sequence of the repeated region in between two blocks. Using the concept of identity vectors for Synteny Blocks (SB and repetitions, a Finite State Machine is designed to detect transition points in the difference between such vectors. The method does not force the BP to be a region or a point but depends on the alignment transitions within the SBs and repetitions. Conclusion The accurate definition of the borders of SB and repeated genomic regions and consequently the detection of BP might help to understand the evolutionary model of species. In this manuscript we present a new proposal for such a refinement. Features of the SBs borders and BPs are different and fit with what is expected. SBs with more diversity in annotations and BPs short and richer in DNA replication and stress response, which are strongly linked with rearrangements.

  12. Dense and refined microstructure 3D measurement method based on an optical microscope and varying illuminations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Zhongwei; Li, Y F

    2011-01-01

    We propose a novel microscopic photometric stereo (MPS) method based on a conventional optical microscope and varying illuminations for dense and refined microstructure 3D measurement. To guarantee the flexibility of the MPS, an uncalibrated photometric stereo (UPS) method, which does not require a priori knowledge of the light-source direction or the light-source intensity, is employed to recover surface normals and albedos from the captured multiple micro-images. Although the UPS has been studied before, there are some particular issues to be addressed to make it suitable for microscopic cases. For resolving the inherent generalized bas-relief (GBR) ambiguity of the UPS, we present a GBR disambiguation method based on a framework of entropy minimization, and extend it using a graph-cut energy minimization to decrease the influence of noise and further refine the recovered surface normal. The proposed MPS method has been tested on synthetic as well as real images and very encouraging results have been obtained. The experimental results show that this novel method can reconstruct dense and refined 3D points for the microstructure. It is an easy-to-implement yet effective alternative method for microstructure 3D measurement and can be applied to many potential fields

  13. Linear Prediction Using Refined Autocorrelation Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Shahidur Rahman

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a new technique for improving the performance of linear prediction analysis by utilizing a refined version of the autocorrelation function. Problems in analyzing voiced speech using linear prediction occur often due to the harmonic structure of the excitation source, which causes the autocorrelation function to be an aliased version of that of the vocal tract impulse response. To estimate the vocal tract characteristics accurately, however, the effect of aliasing must be eliminated. In this paper, we employ homomorphic deconvolution technique in the autocorrelation domain to eliminate the aliasing effect occurred due to periodicity. The resulted autocorrelation function of the vocal tract impulse response is found to produce significant improvement in estimating formant frequencies. The accuracy of formant estimation is verified on synthetic vowels for a wide range of pitch frequencies typical for male and female speakers. The validity of the proposed method is also illustrated by inspecting the spectral envelopes of natural speech spoken by high-pitched female speaker. The synthesis filter obtained by the current method is guaranteed to be stable, which makes the method superior to many of its alternatives.

  14. Refining the Enrolment Process in Emergency Medicine Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahan, Kate M; Channon, Keith M; Choudhury, Robin P; Kharbanda, Rajesh K; Lee, Regent; Sheehan, Mark

    2016-04-01

    Research in the emergency setting involving patients with acute clinical conditions is needed if there are to be advances in diagnosis and treatment. But research in these areas poses ethical and practical challenges. One of these is the general inability to obtain informed consent due to the patient's lack of mental capacity and insufficient time to contact legal representatives. Regulatory frameworks which allow this research to proceed with a consent 'waiver', provided patients lack mental capacity, miss important ethical subtleties. One of these is the varying nature of mental capacity among emergency medicine patients. Not only is their capacity variable and often unclear, but some patients are also likely to be able to engage with the researcher and the context to varying degrees. In this paper we describe the key elements of a novel enrolment process for emergency medicine research that refines the consent waiver and fully engages with the ethical rationale for consent and, in this context, its waiver. The process is verbal but independently documented during the 'emergent' stages of the research. It provides appropriate engagement with the patient, is context-sensitive and better addresses ethical subtleties. In line with regulation, full written consent for on-going participation in the research is obtained once the emergency is passed.

  15. Grain refinement of AZ31 by (SiC)P: Theoretical calculation and experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guenther, R.; Hartig, Ch.; Bormann, R.

    2006-01-01

    Grain refinement of gravity die-cast Mg-alloys can be achieved via two methods: in situ refinement by primary precipitated metallic or intermetallic phases, and inoculation of the melt via ceramic particles that remain stable in the melt due to their high thermodynamic stability. In order to clarify grain refinement mechanisms and optimize possible potent refiners in Mg-alloys, a simulation method for heterogeneous nucleation based on a free growth model has been developed. It allows the prediction of the grain size as a function of the particle size distribution, the volumetric content of ceramic inoculants, the cooling rate and the alloy constitution. The model assumptions were examined experimentally by a study of the grain refinement of (SiC) P in AZ31. Additions of (SiC) P result in significant grain refinement, if appropriate parameters for ceramic particles are chosen. The model makes quantitatively correct predictions for the grain size and its variation with cooling rate

  16. Process for refining shale bitumen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Plauson, H

    1920-09-19

    A process is disclosed for refining shale bitumen for use as heavy mineral oil, characterized by mixtures of blown hard shale pitch and heavy mineral oil being blown with hot air at temperatures of 120 to 150/sup 0/ with 1 to 3 percent sulfur, and if necessary with 0.5 to 3 percent of an aldehyde.

  17. Multigrid for refined triangle meshes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shapira, Yair

    1997-02-01

    A two-level preconditioning method for the solution of (locally) refined finite element schemes using triangle meshes is introduced. In the isotropic SPD case, it is shown that the condition number of the preconditioned stiffness matrix is bounded uniformly for all sufficiently regular triangulations. This is also verified numerically for an isotropic diffusion problem with highly discontinuous coefficients.

  18. Refining crude oils and gasolines, etc

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1931-11-23

    A process of refining crude oils and gasolines distilled from shale and the like is described, consisting of submitting them to a prewash with soda, an oxidation preferably with hypochlorite solution, a hydrogenation with nascent hydrogen, and finally rectification and neutralization.

  19. Grain Refinement by Authigenic Inoculation Inherited from the Medium-Range Order Structure of Ni-Cr-W Superalloy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Zhongtang; Hu, Rui; Guo, Wei; Zhang, Chuanwei

    2018-05-01

    The combination of liquidus casting and thermal control solidification furnace was applied to obtain a fine-grained ingot. A rapid quenching method and x-ray diffraction measurement were used to investigate the effect of authigenic inoculation on grain refinement. The structure factor S( Q) of liquid Ni -Cr-W superalloy at 1400 °C (Liquidus temperature) and bright-field image of the microstructures quenched from 1400 °C have been measured by the high-temperature x-ray diffractometer and the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The results show that a pre-peak exists on a S( Q) curve at the liquidus temperature. The clusters of atom in rapidly quenched microstructures obtained by isothermal heat treatment at 1400 °C were studied using TEM. Meanwhile, the effect of isothermal different temperatures on rapidly quenched microstructures was studied. The results also show that there are only the globular, equiaxed grains distributed in the solidification structure. These particles are inherited from the medium-range order structure, which is beneficial for grain refinement. The normalized work-hardening rate-strain curve indicates the work-hardening rate of fine grain is higher than that of conventional grain at the same temperature and the same deformation.

  20. A conformation-dependent stereochemical library improves crystallographic refinement even at atomic resolution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tronrud, Dale E.; Karplus, P. Andrew

    2011-01-01

    A script was created to allow SHELXL to use the new CDL v.1.2 stereochemical library which defines the target values for main-chain bond lengths and angles as a function of the residue’s ϕ/ψ angles. Test refinements using this script show that the refinement behavior of structures at resolutions even better than 1 Å is substantially enhanced by the use of the new conformation-dependent ideal geometry paradigm. To utilize a new conformation-dependent backbone-geometry library (CDL) in protein refinements at atomic resolution, a script was written that creates a restraint file for the SHELXL refinement program. It was found that the use of this library allows models to be created that have a substantially better fit to main-chain bond angles and lengths without degrading their fit to the X-ray data even at resolutions near 1 Å. For models at much higher resolution (∼0.7 Å), the refined model for parts adopting single well occupied positions is largely independent of the restraints used, but these structures still showed much smaller r.m.s.d. residuals when assessed with the CDL. Examination of the refinement tests across a wide resolution range from 2.4 to 0.65 Å revealed consistent behavior supporting the use of the CDL as a next-generation restraint library to improve refinement. CDL restraints can be generated using the service at http://pgd.science.oregonstate.edu/cdl_shelxl/

  1. Field sludge characterization obtained from inner of pipelines

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nava, N.; Sosa, E.; Alamilla, J.L. [Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Programa de Integridad de Ductos, Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas Norte 152, San Bartolo Atepehuacan, C.P. 07730 (Mexico); Knigth, C. [PEMEX Refinacion, Avenida Marina Nacional 329, Edificio B-2, Piso 11, C.P. 11311 (Mexico); Contreras, A. [Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Programa de Integridad de Ductos, Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas Norte 152, San Bartolo Atepehuacan, C.P. 07730 (Mexico)], E-mail: acontrer@imp.mx

    2009-11-15

    Physicochemical characterization of sludge obtained from refined hydrocarbons transmission pipeline was carried out through Moessbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The Moessbauer and X-ray patterns indicate the presence of corrosion products composed of different iron oxide and sulfide phases. Hematite ({alpha}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}), magnetite (Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}), maghemite ({gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}), magnetic and superparamagnetic goethite ({alpha}-FeOOH), pyrrhotite (Fe{sub 1-x}S), akaganeite ({beta}-FeOOH), and lepidocrocite ({gamma}-FeOOH) were identified as corrosion products in samples obtained from pipeline transporting Magna and Premium gasoline. For diesel transmission pipeline, hematite, magnetite, and magnetic goethite were identified. Corrosion products follow a simple reaction mechanism of steel dissolution in aerated aqueous media at a near-neutral pH. Chemical composition of the corrosion products depends on H{sub 2}O and sulfur inherent in fluids (traces). These results can be useful for decision-making with regard to pipeline corrosion control.

  2. Refining mass formulas for astrophysical applications: A Bayesian neural network approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Utama, R.; Piekarewicz, J.

    2017-10-01

    Background: Exotic nuclei, particularly those near the drip lines, are at the core of one of the fundamental questions driving nuclear structure and astrophysics today: What are the limits of nuclear binding? Exotic nuclei play a critical role in both informing theoretical models as well as in our understanding of the origin of the heavy elements. Purpose: Our aim is to refine existing mass models through the training of an artificial neural network that will mitigate the large model discrepancies far away from stability. Methods: The basic paradigm of our two-pronged approach is an existing mass model that captures as much as possible of the underlying physics followed by the implementation of a Bayesian neural network (BNN) refinement to account for the missing physics. Bayesian inference is employed to determine the parameters of the neural network so that model predictions may be accompanied by theoretical uncertainties. Results: Despite the undeniable quality of the mass models adopted in this work, we observe a significant improvement (of about 40%) after the BNN refinement is implemented. Indeed, in the specific case of the Duflo-Zuker mass formula, we find that the rms deviation relative to experiment is reduced from σrms=0.503 MeV to σrms=0.286 MeV. These newly refined mass tables are used to map the neutron drip lines (or rather "drip bands") and to study a few critical r -process nuclei. Conclusions: The BNN approach is highly successful in refining the predictions of existing mass models. In particular, the large discrepancy displayed by the original "bare" models in regions where experimental data are unavailable is considerably quenched after the BNN refinement. This lends credence to our approach and has motivated us to publish refined mass tables that we trust will be helpful for future astrophysical applications.

  3. [Informed Consent and the Approval by Ethics Committees of Studies Involving the Use of Atypical Antipsychotics in the Management of Delirium].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Millán-González, Ricardo

    2012-03-01

    Delirium is an acute alteration of consciousness and cognition. Atypical antipsychotics (AA) have recently become a main part of its treatment. Studies in this population generate a series of ethical dilemmas concerning the voluntary participation of patients and their state of vulnerability since their mental faculties are, by definition, compromised. To assess whether studies with AA for the treatment of delirium obtained an approval by an ethics committee on human research (ECHR), if an informed consent (IC) was obtained, whether the IC was verbal or written, and who gave the approval to participate. Systematic review of Medline for studies of delirium where quetiapine and olanzapine were the main treatment, assessing the existence of an ECHR approval and implementation of an IC. 11 studies were identified (6 of quetiapine and 5 of olanzapine). 5 had an ECHR approval. Most studies examining the treatment of delirium with quetiapine or olanzapine were not subject to approval by an ECHR and most of them did not obtain an IC from the patient's legal guardian. It is essential that future studies of antipsychotics and other drugs for the treatment of delirium have the protocol approved by an ECHR and a written IC signed by the patient's legal representative, since by definition delirium is a condition that compromises superior mental processes. Copyright © 2012 Asociación Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

  4. A Canadian refiner's perspective of synthetic crudes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Halford, T.L.; McIntosh, A.P.; Rasmussen

    1997-01-01

    Some of the factors affecting a refiner's choice of crude oil include refinery hardware, particularly gas oil crackers, products slate and product specifications, crude availability, relative crude price and crude quality. An overview of synthetic crude, the use of synthetic crude combined with other crudes and a comparison of synthetic crude with conventional crude oil was given. The two main users of synthetic crude are basically two groups of refiners, those large groups who use synthetic crude combined with other crudes, and a smaller group who run synthetic crude on specially designed units as a sole feed. The effects of changes in fuel legislation were reviewed. It was predicted that the changes will have a mixed impact on the value of synthetic crude, but low sulphur diesel regulations and gasoline sulphur regulations will make current synthetic crudes attractive. The big future change with a negative impact will be diesel cetane increases to reduce engine emissions. This will reduce synthetic crude attractiveness due to distillate yields and quality and high gas oil yields. Similarly, any legislation limiting aromatics in diesel fuel will also make synthetic crudes less attractive. Problems experienced by refiners with hardware dedicated to synthetic crude (salt, naphthenic acid, fouling, quality variations) were also reviewed. 3 tabs

  5. The Generation of AlmFe in Dilute Aluminium Alloys with Different Grain Refining Additions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meredith, M. W.; Greer, A. L.; Evans, P. V.; Hamerton, R. G.

    Al13Fe4, Al6Fe and AlmFe are common intermetallics in commercial AA1XXX series Al alloys. Grain-refining additions (based on either Al-Ti-B or Al-Ti-C) are usually added to such alloys during solidification processing to aid the grain structure development. They also influence the favoured intermetallic and, hence, can affect the materials' properties. This work simulates commercial casting practices in an attempt to determine the mechanisms by which one intermetallic phase is favoured over another by the introduction of grain-refining additions. Directional solidification experiments on Al-0.3wt.%Fe-0.15wt.%Si with and without grain refiner are conducted using Bridgman apparatus. The type, amount and effectiveness of the grain-refining additions are altered and the resulting intermetallic phase selection followed. The materials are characterised using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. AlmFe is seen to form when Al-Ti-B grain-refiner is introduced but only when the refinement is successful; reducing the effectiveness of the refiner led to Al6Fe forming under all conditions. Al-Ti-C refiners are seen to promote AlmFe at lower solidification velocities than when Al-Ti-B was used even though the grain structure was not as refined. These trends can be explained within existing eutectic theory, by considering growth undercooling.

  6. Grain Refinement of Commercial EC Grade 1070 Aluminium Alloy for Electrical Application

    OpenAIRE

    Hassanabadi, Massoud

    2015-01-01

    The aluminium alloys for electrical conductivity applications are generally not grain refinedsince the addition of grain refiners drops the electrical conductivity by introducing impuritiesinto the melt. Non-grain refined aluminium may lead to bar fracture and cracks during themetalworking process. The present study focuses to find an optimum balance between the grain refiner addition andthe electrical conductivity of commercial EC grade 1070 aluminium alloy for electricalapplication. In orde...

  7. Rising costs call for new European refining strategies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sweeney, B.N.C.

    1993-01-01

    The outlook for the global refining industry is for increased spending and reduced margins, largely because of efforts to improve the environment. A look at these trends through the end of the decade is thus in order. Three major industry thrusts are proposed to see refiners through this uncertain period. Three main thrusts are necessary: fixed costs must be reduced by re-engineering business processes and reexamining noncore business units against total and marginal costs. In this respect the best refiners are well ahead of the good ones. New cooperative ways of meeting regulations must be sought, to avoid wasteful over capacity. Joint ventures and alliances with competitors will be needed. The cooperative principle upstream must be extended and new strategies must be sought to meet product demand changes and reduce feedstock costs. The picture that is presented is tough, largely because of the wish to improve the environment. The question that must be continually reviewed is ''Have governments got the right balance in these regulations between the environment and the downstream industry?''

  8. Stability studies on refined soybean oil stored in various conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arawande, J.O.; Amoo, I.A.

    2008-01-01

    The 12 months stability study of freshly produced refined soybean oil revealed that refined soybean oil stored in plastic containers in dark was more hydrolytically and oxidatively stable than that stored in other containers in light condition. There was no significant difference at P < 0.05 in free fatty acids and acid value of oil stored under light and dark conditions in tin and glass containers but there was significant difference at P < 0.05 in peroxide value of oil stored in light and dark conditions in all the storage containers. Light increased the degree of oxidative rancidity of refined soybean oil, the most in tin containers, followed by glass containers and the least in plastic containers. (author)

  9. Atlantic Basin refining profitability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, R.J.

    1998-01-01

    A review of the profitability margins of oil refining in the Atlantic Basin was presented. Petroleum refiners face the continuous challenge of balancing supply with demand. It would appear that the profitability margins in the Atlantic Basin will increase significantly in the near future because of shrinking supply surpluses. Refinery capacity utilization has reached higher levels than ever before. The American Petroleum Institute reported that in August 1997, U.S. refineries used 99 per cent of their capacity for several weeks in a row. U.S. gasoline inventories have also declined as the industry has focused on reducing capital costs. This is further evidence that supply and demand are tightly balanced. Some of the reasons for tightening supplies were reviewed. It was predicted that U.S. gasoline demand will continue to grow in the near future. Gasoline demand has not declined as expected because new vehicles are not any more fuel efficient today than they were a decade ago. Although federally-mandated fuel efficiency standards were designed to lower gasoline consumption, they may actually have prevented consumption from falling. Atlantic margins were predicted to continue moving up because of the supply and demand evidence: high capacity utilization rates, low operating inventories, limited capacity addition resulting from lower capital spending, continued U.S. gasoline demand growth, and steady total oil demand growth. 11 figs

  10. The effect of refining step on the changes in viscosity values of vegetable oils

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ergonul, P.G.

    2013-01-01

    In this work, the viscosity values of chemically refined vegetable oils (sunflower, corn, soybean and rapeseed) and physically refined vegetable oils (olive and palm) were determined during refining processes. At this point of view, fatty acid compositions and viscosity values of oil samples were determined. The edible vegetable oils presented Newtonian behavior in shear rates at ranges 6.28-20.93 s/sup -1/. It was observed that palm oil is more viscous than the others. During physical refining, the effect of both oil type and refining steps were significantly important, whereas in chemical refining only the effect of oil type was found statistically important (p<0.01). It was observed that correlation among fatty acid compositions and viscosity values of the samples showed differences according to oil type. (author)

  11. Hybrid direct and iterative solvers for h refined grids with singularities

    KAUST Repository

    Paszyński, Maciej R.; Paszyńska, Anna; Dalcin, Lisandro; Calo, Victor M.

    2015-01-01

    on top of it. The hybrid solver is applied for two or three dimensional grids automatically h refined towards point or edge singularities. The automatic refinement is based on the relative error estimations between the coarse and fine mesh solutions [2

  12. Panorama 2016 - Refining outlook for 2035

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marion, Pierre; Saint-Antonin, Valerie

    2015-12-01

    The rising influence of objectives intended to address the energy transition in global industry helps to perpetuate a high degree of uncertainty about changes in the transportation sector, currently a bastion of the oil industry. How can the growing need for individual mobility be met while reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in a world of open international competition? The refining sector is gaining strength in Asia and the Middle East to the detriment of Europe and North America, reflecting demand and the intrinsic competitiveness of various geographic regions. The 2025 worldwide roll-out (2020 in Europe) of a bunker fuel grade below 0.5 wt% (percentage by weight) in sulphur could experience delays, given the number of installations to be completed. Finally, the reversal of the 'all diesel' trend in the European transport market is a positive change for the European refining industry. (authors)

  13. Tree automata-based refinement with application to Horn clause verification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kafle, Bishoksan; Gallagher, John Patrick

    2015-01-01

    In this paper we apply tree-automata techniques to refinement of abstract interpretation in Horn clause verification. We go beyond previous work on refining trace abstractions; firstly we handle tree automata rather than string automata and thereby can capture traces in any Horn clause derivation...... compare the results with other state of the art Horn clause verification tools....

  14. Influence of refining time on nonmetallic inclusions in a low-carbon, silicon-killed steel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fernandes, Marcolino; Pires, Jose Carlos; Cheung, Noe; Garcia, Amauri

    2003-01-01

    Nonmetallic inclusions are harmful to the mechanical properties of every kind of steel produced worldwide. The greater the size of the inclusion present in the structure of a determined kind of steel, the greater its negative effect on the quality of the steel. Therefore, the objective of this work was to investigate the size, the quantity, the shape and the chemical composition of nonmetallic inclusions formed throughout the refining process of silicon-killed, low-carbon steel, as a function of the treatment time in a ladle furnace, trying to ensure the flotation of inclusions bigger than 25 μm. This investigation was carried out using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), with an analysis system using energy dispersive spectometry (EDS). Based on this work, it was possible to know more precisely the nature of the inclusions, the necessary time to ensure flotation of large inclusions, the efficiency of the slag to capture the inclusions, and the inclusion level of the steel throughout its refining process to try to obtain a higher quality steel product

  15. A protocol for the refinement of NMR structures using simultaneously pseudocontact shift restraints from multiple lanthanide ions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sala, Davide; Giachetti, Andrea; Luchinat, Claudio, E-mail: luchinat@cerm.unifi.it; Rosato, Antonio, E-mail: rosato@cerm.unifi.it [University of Florence, Magnetic Resonance Center (CERM) (Italy)

    2016-11-15

    The binding of paramagnetic metal ions to proteins produces a number of different effects on the NMR spectra of the system. In particular, when the magnetic susceptibility of the metal ion is anisotropic, pseudocontact shifts (PCSs) arise and can be easily measured. They constitute very useful restraints for the solution structure determination of metal-binding proteins. In this context, there has been great interest in the use of lanthanide(III) ions to induce PCSs in diamagnetic proteins, e.g. through the replacement native calcium(II) ions. By preparing multiple samples in each of which a different ion of the lanthanide series is introduced, it is possible to obtain multiple independent PCS datasets that can be used synergistically to generate protein structure ensembles (typically called bundles). For typical NMR-based determination of protein structure, it is necessary to perform an energetic refinement of such initial bundles to obtain final structures whose geometric quality is suitable for deposition in the PDB. This can be conveniently done by using restrained molecular dynamics simulations (rMD) in explicit solvent. However, there are no available protocols for rMD using multiple PCS datasets as part of the restraints. In this work, we extended the PCS module of the AMBER MD package to handle multiple datasets and tuned a previously developed protocol for NMR structure refinement to achieve consistent convergence with PCS restraints. Test calculations with real experimental data show that this new implementation delivers the expected improvement of protein geometry, resulting in final structures that are of suitable quality for deposition. Furthermore, we observe that also initial structures generated only with traditional restraints can be successfully refined using traditional and PCS restraints simultaneously.

  16. The regulations concerning refining business of nuclear source material and nuclear fuel materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-01-01

    The regulations are provided for under the law for the regulations of nuclear source materials, nuclear fuel materials and reactors and provisions concerning refining business in the enforcement order for the law. The basic concepts and terms are defined, such as: exposure dose, accumulative dose; controlled area; inspected surrounding area and employee. Refining facilities listed in the application for designation shall be classified into clushing and leaching, thickning, refining facilities, storage facilities of nuclear source materials and nuclear fuel materials, disposal facilities of contaminated substances and building for refining, etc. Business program attached to the application shall include expected time of beginning of refining, estimated production amount of nuclear source materials or nuclear fuel materials for the first three years and funds necessary for construction, etc. Records shall be made and kept for particular periods on delivery and storage of nuclear source materials and nuclear fuel materials, control of radiation, maintenance and accidents of refining facilities. Safety securing, application of internationally regulated substances and measures in dangerous situations are stipulated respectively. Exposure dose of employees and other specified matters shall be reported by the refiner yearly to the Director General of Science and Technology Agency and the Minister of International Trade and Industry. (Okada, K.)

  17. Catalysts in petroleum refining and petrochemical industries 1995

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Absi-Halabi, M.; Beshara, J.; Qabazard, H.; Stanislaus, A. [eds.] [Petroleum, Petrochemicals and Materials Division, Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research, Kuwait (Kuwait)

    1996-07-01

    Catalysis plays an increasingly critical role in modern petroleum refining and basic petrochemical industries. The market demands for and specifications of petroleum and petrochemical products are continuously changing. They have impacted the industry significantly over the past twenty years. Numerous new refining processes have been developed and significant improvements were made on existing technologies. Catalysts have been instrumental in enabling the industry to meet the continuous challenges posed by the market. As we enter the 21st century, new challenges for catalysis science and technology are anticipated in almost every field. Particularly, better utilization of petroleum resources and demands for cleaner transportation fuels are major items on the agenda. It is against this background that the 2nd International Conference on Catalysts in Petroleum Refining and Petrochemical Industries was organized. The papers from the conference were carefully selected from around 100 submissions. They were a mix of reviews providing an overview of selected areas, original fundamental research results, and industrial experiences. The papers in the proceedings were grouped in the following sections for quick reference: Plenary Papers; Hydroprocessing of Petroleum Residues and Distillates; Fluid Catalytic Cracking; Oxidation Catalysis; Aromatization and Polymerization Catalysis; Catalyst Characterization and Performance. The plenary papers were mostly reviews covering important topics related to the objectives of the conference. The remaining sections cover various topics of major impact on modern petroleum refining and petrochemical industries. A large number of papers dealt with hydroprocessing of petroleum distillates and residues which reflects the concern over meeting future sulfur-level specifications for diesel and fuel oils

  18. Refining waste hardmetals into tungsten oxide nanosheets via facile method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li, Zhifei; Zheng, Guangwei; Wang, Jinshu, E-mail: wangjsh@bjut.edu.cn; Li, Hongyi, E-mail: lhy06@bjut.edu.cn; Wu, Junshu; Du, Yucheng [Beijing University of Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering (China)

    2016-04-15

    A new hydrothermal system has been designed to recycle waste WC–Co hardmetal with low cobalt (Co) content (3 %). In the solution system, nitric acid was designed to dissolve Co, H{sub 2}O{sub 2} served as oxidant to accelerate the oxidation of the WC–Co hardmetals, and fluorine (F{sup −}) was designed to dissolve and recrystallize generated tungsten oxides, which were found to possess a layered structure using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The obtained tungsten oxides were identified as WO{sub 3}·0.33H{sub 2}O by X-ray diffraction and their specific surface area was measured as 89.2 m{sup 2} g{sup −1} via N{sub 2} adsorption–desorption techniques. The present layered structure tungsten oxides exhibited a promising capability for removing lead ion (Pb{sup 2+}) and organic species, such as methyl blue. The adsorption model was found to be in agreement with Langmuir isotherm model. Given the facile synthesis procedure and promising properties of final products, this new approach should have great potential for refining some other waste hardmetals or tungsten products.Graphical AbstractA new hydrothermal system was designed to recycle waste hardmetal with low cobalt content. Through this method, waste hardmetal was refined into WO{sub 3}·0.33H{sub 2}O nanosheets which shows excellent adsorption capacities toward methylene blue and lead ion (Pb{sup 2+}).

  19. Ethics approval: responsibilities of journal editors, authors and research ethics committees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bain, Luchuo Engelbert

    2017-01-01

    Meaningful progress of medicine depends on research that must ultimately involve human subjects. Obtaining ethical approval therefore, especially in medical sciences, should be a moral reflex for researchers. This unfortunately is not the case, with numerous researchers bypassing the ethics approval procedure, or simply unaware of its importance. Good research involves risks taken by research participants and uses tax payers' money in the process. These mandates the research endeavor to aim at attaining the highest degree of respect for the sacrifices made by others for science. Most researchers mistake scientific clearance or approval, for ethics approval. For a study to be ethical sound, it must be scientifically sound. This is only one of the activities carried out during protocol review. It is not uncommon for sensitive ethical concerns, especially in the social sciences to be overlooked and considered not to be accompanied by any serious risks for the research participants.The researcher has the responsibility of systematically consulting the competent ethics committee for advice and consequent approvals or ethical waivers. Journal editors and reviewers have the duty to systematically evaluate the ethical soundness of manuscripts submitted for review. Capacity building in research ethics and institutional support for Research Ethics Committees to speed up protocol review could reduce the incentive of carrying out research in human subjects without ethics approvals. It is hypocritical and idle to continue to expect optimal reviews on time and of good quality, from ethics committees functioning purely on altruistic grounds. Capacity building for researchers in research ethics, and institutional reforms and support for Research Ethics Committees appear not to have received the attention they truly deserve.

  20. Profex: a graphical user interface for the Rietveld refinement program BGMN.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doebelin, Nicola; Kleeberg, Reinhard

    2015-10-01

    Profex is a graphical user interface for the Rietveld refinement program BGMN . Its interface focuses on preserving BGMN 's powerful and flexible scripting features by giving direct access to BGMN input files. Very efficient workflows for single or batch refinements are achieved by managing refinement control files and structure files, by providing dialogues and shortcuts for many operations, by performing operations in the background, and by providing import filters for CIF and XML crystal structure files. Refinement results can be easily exported for further processing. State-of-the-art graphical export of diffraction patterns to pixel and vector graphics formats allows the creation of publication-quality graphs with minimum effort. Profex reads and converts a variety of proprietary raw data formats and is thus largely instrument independent. Profex and BGMN are available under an open-source license for Windows, Linux and OS X operating systems.

  1. Stable grid refinement and singular source discretization for seismic wave simulations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Petersson, N A; Sjogreen, B

    2009-10-30

    An energy conserving discretization of the elastic wave equation in second order formulation is developed for a composite grid, consisting of a set of structured rectangular component grids with hanging nodes on the grid refinement interface. Previously developed summation-by-parts properties are generalized to devise a stable second order accurate coupling of the solution across mesh refinement interfaces. The discretization of singular source terms of point force and point moment tensor type are also studied. Based on enforcing discrete moment conditions that mimic properties of the Dirac distribution and its gradient, previous single grid formulas are generalized to work in the vicinity of grid refinement interfaces. These source discretization formulas are shown to give second order accuracy in the solution, with the error being essentially independent of the distance between the source and the grid refinement boundary. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate the properties of the proposed method.

  2. Demand, deregulation may attract more refiners to Asia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rhodes, A.K.

    1995-01-01

    As a result of rapidly increasing demand, major oil companies are eyeing Asian oil and gas markets more closely than ever. Higher earnings can be expected there than in the US or Europe, where product markets--especially light products--are expected to tighten long-term. Of the nations with growing requirements for refined products, China and India offer greater opportunity for foreign investors to enter downstream projects. Also offering excellent business prospects are Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The paper discusses oil demand, products, refining capacity, and capacity additions in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and China

  3. China's refiners face massive overhaul, expansion to meet demand growth, new crude slate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1994-01-01

    China's refining industry has embarked on a massive overhaul and expansion to accommodate soaring domestic growth in refined products demand. Currently that growth in demand is being met by increasing imports of refined products, in recent years attaining triple digit growth rates and squeezing direly needed foreign exchange. The focus is on adding refining capacity of about 1.4 million b/d to the current capacity of about 3.2 million b/d by 2000. Priority for increasing capacity is being given to expanding existing refineries and participating in foreign joint venture grassroots refineries along China's booming coastal regions as well as hiking output. A major challenge for China's refineries is that country's reentry into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), recently signed in Morocco by more than 100 nations. The accompanying reduction of tariffs on imported refined products will make it more difficult for China's marginal refineries to compete in the domestic market. The paper discusses imports and exports, LPG outlook, refining capacity, revamps needed, third party processing, China's first joint venture refinery, industry plans, and GATT challenges

  4. Effect of grain refinement on the fluidity of two commercial Al-Si foundry alloys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dahle, A. K.; Tøndel, P. A.; Paradies, C. J.; Arnberg, L.

    1996-08-01

    The effect of grain refinement on the fluidity of AlSi7Mg and AlSi11Mg has been investigated by spiral tests. Two different types of grain refiners have been evaluated. An AlTi5Bl master alloy was added to different Ti contents. Since the commercial alloys had a high initial content of titanium, model alloys were made to investigate the fluidity at low grain refiner additions. Commercial alloys grain refined only by boron additions have also been investigated. The results from the fluidity measurements have been verified by measuring the dendrite coherency point of the different cast alloys. Although different, the two methods show similar trends. The spirals from each fraction grain refiner cast were subsequently investigated metallographically at the tip of the spirals and at a reference point a distance behind, but no obvious difference in structure was observed. For both alloys, an increase in fluidity is observed as the content of grain refiner increases above 0.12 pct Ti, while the fluidity is impaired with increased grain refinement below 0.12 pct Ti. The alloys grain refined with ~0.015 pct B show the highest fraction solid at dendrite coherency, the smallest grain size, and the best fluidity.

  5. Structural refinement of Nd[Fe(CN)6].4H2O and study of NdFeO3 obtained by its oxidative thermal decomposition at very low temperatures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Navarro, M. Carolina; Pannunzio-Miner, Elisa V.; Pagola, Silvina; Gomez, M. Ines; Carbonio, Raul E.

    2005-01-01

    The crystal structure of Nd[Fe(CN) 6 ].4H 2 O has been refined by Rietveld analysis using high resolution synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction data. It belonged to the orthorhombic crystal system, Cmcm space group, with cell parameters: a=7.473952(1)A, b=12.919104(2)A and c=13.800549(2)A. The change in space group from P6 3 /m which is observed in the pentahydrates (LnFe(CN) 6 .5H 2 O) to Cmcm in the tetrahydrates has been analyzed to be a consequence of the change in 9-fold coordination of Nd 3+ in the pentahydrates to 8-fold coordination in the tetrahydrates, which changes the Nd 3+ environment from tricapped trigonal prism to a distorted tricapped trigonal prism or square antiprism. Its decomposition process in air to produce NdFeO 3 has been followed by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis, IR spectroscopy and laboratory powder XRD. We found that it is possible to synthesize crystalline NdFeO 3 at temperatures as low as 380 o C and refine the structure of single phase crystalline NdFeO 3 synthesized by this method at 600 deg. C

  6. The possibility of obtaining marketing authorization of orphan pharmaceutical compounding preparations: 3,4-DAP for Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Wilde, Sofieke; de Jong, Maria G H; Lipka, Alexander F; Guchelaar, Henk-Jan; Schimmel, Kirsten J M

    2018-03-01

    Pharmaceutical compounding preparations, produced by (hospital) pharmacies, usually do not have marketing authorization. As a consequence, some of these pharmaceutical compounding preparations can be picked-up by a pharmaceutical company to obtain marketing authorization, often leading to price increases. An example is the 3,4-diaminopyridine slow release (3,4-DAP SR) tablets for Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS). In 2009 marketing authorization was given for the commercial immediate release phosphate salt of the drug, including a fifty-fold price increase compared to the pharmaceutical compounding preparation. Obtaining marketing authorization for 3,4-DAP SR by academia might have been a solution to prevent this price increase. To determine whether the available data of a pharmaceutical compounding preparation with long-term experience in regular care are adequate to obtain marketing authorization, 3,4-DAP SR is used as a case study. A retrospective qualitative case-study was performed. Initially, document analysis was executed by collecting the required data for marketing authorization in general and whether data of Firdapse® and 3,4-DAP SR met these requirements. Secondly, the (non-) available data of the two formulations were compared with each other to determine the differences in availability. At the time of approval, almost all data were available for both Firdapse® and 3,4-DAP SR. Conversely, much of the data used for the approval of Firdapse® originated from the 3,4-DAP immediate release (3,4-DAP IR) formulation. Only two bioequivalence studies and one pharmacology safety study was performed with Firdapse® before marketing authorization application. In conclusion, at time Firdapse® obtained approval, the data available did not differ substantially from 3,4-DAP SR, indicating that approval with 3,4-DAP SR would have been possible. We make a plea for approval of orphan medicinal products developed and manufactured by academic institutions as to

  7. Dynamic modeling of uncertainty in the planned values of investments in petrochemical and refining projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vianello, Juliano Melquiades; Costa, Leticia; Teixeira, José Paulo

    2014-01-01

    There is a large gap between the planned value of investment in a project and its financial implementation. This fact creates a mismatch between the planned and effectively achieved net present value (NPV) of the project. Considering the project portfolio of a company, this could even threaten your solvency in the future. Therefore, a quantitative-risk analysis that takes into account different possible scenarios for these values of investment is extremely important to measure statistically the real value of a project. The aim of this paper is to present the reasons for this mismatch between planned and executed investments and, from this study, obtain a suitable stochastic process to generate different scenarios for these investments in the oil industry. Although the results are valid for projects in the petrochemical and refining sector, also called in the oil industry as downstream, the methodology can be applied to the upstream or even other branches of industry. - Highlights: • We measure statistically the real value of an investment project. • We present the reasons for the mismatch between planned and executed investments. • We obtain a stochastic process to generate scenarios for oil industry investments. • Results are valid for projects in the petrochemical and refining sector, downstream. • The methodology can be applied to the upstream or even other branches of industry

  8. Phenotypic and phylogenetic identification of coliform bacteria obtained from 12 USEPA approved coliform methods

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Ya

    2015-06-26

    The current definition of coliform bacteria is method-dependent, and when different culture-based methods are used, discrepancies in results can occur and affect the accuracy in identifying true coliforms. This study used an alternative approach to identify true coliforms by combing the phenotypic traits of the coliform isolates and the phylogenetic affiliation of 16S rRNA gene sequences together with the use of lacZ and uidA genes. A collection of 1404 isolates from 12 US Environmental Protection Agency approved coliform-testing methods were characterized based on their phylogenetic affiliations and responses to their original isolation medium and Lauryl Tryptose broth, m-Endo and MI agar media. Isolates were phylogenetically classified into 32 true coliform or targeted Enterobacteriaceae (TE) groups, and 14 non-coliform or non-targeted Enterbacteriaceae (NTE) groups. It was statistically shown that detecting true-positive (TP) events is more challenging than detecting true-negative (TN) events. Furthermore, most false-negative (FN) events were associated with four TE groups (i.e., Serratia group I, Providencia, Proteus, and Morganella), and most false-positive (FP) events with two NTE groups, Aeromonas and Plesiomonas. In Escherichia coli testing, 18 out of 145 E. coli isolates identified by those enzymatic methods were validated as FNs. The reasons behind the FP and FN reactions could be explained through the analysis of the lacZ and uidA gene. Overall, combining the analyses of 16S rRNA, lacZ and uidA genes with the growth responses of TE and NTE on culture-based media is an effective way to evaluate the performance of coliform detection methods.

  9. Phenotypic and phylogenetic identification of coliform bacteria obtained from 12 USEPA approved coliform methods

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Ya; Hong, Pei-Ying; LeChevallier, Mark W.; Liu, Wen-Tso

    2015-01-01

    The current definition of coliform bacteria is method-dependent, and when different culture-based methods are used, discrepancies in results can occur and affect the accuracy in identifying true coliforms. This study used an alternative approach to identify true coliforms by combing the phenotypic traits of the coliform isolates and the phylogenetic affiliation of 16S rRNA gene sequences together with the use of lacZ and uidA genes. A collection of 1404 isolates from 12 US Environmental Protection Agency approved coliform-testing methods were characterized based on their phylogenetic affiliations and responses to their original isolation medium and Lauryl Tryptose broth, m-Endo and MI agar media. Isolates were phylogenetically classified into 32 true coliform or targeted Enterobacteriaceae (TE) groups, and 14 non-coliform or non-targeted Enterbacteriaceae (NTE) groups. It was statistically shown that detecting true-positive (TP) events is more challenging than detecting true-negative (TN) events. Furthermore, most false-negative (FN) events were associated with four TE groups (i.e., Serratia group I, Providencia, Proteus, and Morganella), and most false-positive (FP) events with two NTE groups, Aeromonas and Plesiomonas. In Escherichia coli testing, 18 out of 145 E. coli isolates identified by those enzymatic methods were validated as FNs. The reasons behind the FP and FN reactions could be explained through the analysis of the lacZ and uidA gene. Overall, combining the analyses of 16S rRNA, lacZ and uidA genes with the growth responses of TE and NTE on culture-based media is an effective way to evaluate the performance of coliform detection methods.

  10. Structure of 3 at.% and 9 at.% Si-doped HfO{sub 2} from combined refinement of X-ray and neutron diffraction patterns

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhao, Lili [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, NC 27695 (United States); School of Information Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi' an 710127 (China); Hou, Dong; Usher, Tedi-Marie; Iamsasri, Thanakorn; Fancher, Chris M.; Forrester, Jennifer S. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, NC 27695 (United States); Nishida, Toshikazu [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, FL 32611 (United States); Moghaddam, Saeed [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida, FL 32611 (United States); Jones, Jacob L., E-mail: jacobjones@ncsu.edu [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, NC 27695 (United States)

    2015-10-15

    The crystal structure of 3 at.% and 9 at.% Si-doped HfO{sub 2} powder was determined through refinements using X-ray and neutron diffraction patterns. The lattice parameters, atomic positions, dopant occupancy, and the second phase fraction were determined with high precision using a combined full pattern fitting via the Rietveld method. The results show that both 3 at.% and 9 at.% Si-doped HfO{sub 2} powder exhibit the monoclinic crystal structure with P 1 2{sub 1}/c 1 space group. Through the combined refinement, the crystal structure parameters, especially for the positions and occupancies of the lighter atoms, were more precisely determined compared to independent X-ray diffraction refinement. Although the ionic radius of Si{sup 4+} is smaller than Hf{sup 4+}, with increasing Si occupancy, the unit cell volume slightly increases; possible mechanisms for this effect are discussed. Moreover, the refined results provide evidence of the existence of a non-equilibrium phase of Hf{sub x}Si{sub 1−x}O{sub 2}. The second phase (SiO{sub 2}) fraction is determined as 0.17 at.% for 3 at.% Si-doped HfO{sub 2} powders and 1.7 at.% for 9 at.% Si-doped HfO{sub 2} powders. - Highlights: • X-ray and neutron diffraction patterns were used to determine crystal structure. • Results from independent refinements and a combined refinement were compared. • Highly precise structural parameters were obtained by the combined refinement. • Structural data of 3 at.% and 9 at.% Si-doped HfO{sub 2} are provided. • The unit cell volume slightly increases with Si concentration from 3 to 9 at.%.

  11. Microstructures and Grain Refinement of Additive-Manufactured Ti- xW Alloys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendoza, Michael Y.; Samimi, Peyman; Brice, David A.; Martin, Brian W.; Rolchigo, Matt R.; LeSar, Richard; Collins, Peter C.

    2017-07-01

    It is necessary to better understand the composition-processing-microstructure relationships that exist for materials produced by additive manufacturing. To this end, Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™), a type of additive manufacturing, was used to produce a compositionally graded titanium binary model alloy system (Ti- xW specimen (0 ≤ x ≤ 30 wt pct), so that relationships could be made between composition, processing, and the prior beta grain size. Importantly, the thermophysical properties of the Ti- xW, specifically its supercooling parameter ( P) and growth restriction factor ( Q), are such that grain refinement is expected and was observed. The systematic, combinatorial study of this binary system provides an opportunity to assess the mechanisms by which grain refinement occurs in Ti-based alloys in general, and for additive manufacturing in particular. The operating mechanisms that govern the relationship between composition and grain size are interpreted using a model originally developed for aluminum and magnesium alloys and subsequently applied for titanium alloys. The prior beta grain factor observed and the interpretations of their correlations indicate that tungsten is a good grain refiner and such models are valid to explain the grain-refinement process. By extension, other binary elements or higher order alloy systems with similar thermophysical properties should exhibit similar grain refinement.

  12. A new concept for product refining in the Purex process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henrich, E.; Bauder, U.; Marquardt, R.

    1986-01-01

    In actual Purex plants the products are refined in additional solvent extraction cycles. Crystallization of uranyl and plutonyl nitrate from aqueous nitric acid solution is proposed as a potentially simpler product refining concept. Suitable crystallization conditions are being investigated in the laboratory using simulated and actual process solutions. A thorough removal of mother liquor is an essential purification step and well washed crystals usually contain less than 1% of an individual impurity. Crystallization simultaneously comprises a product concentration step. Hexavalent uranium can be separated from lower-valent plutonium. An outline of an integrated processing concept is given. Product refining by crystallization is compact; recycling of mother liquor plus wash acid prevents product loss and the generation of additional waste streams. (orig.) [de

  13. 40 CFR 80.1142 - What are the provisions for small refiners under the RFS program?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... all of the following criteria: (i) The refiner produced gasoline at its refineries by processing crude... Standard § 80.1142 What are the provisions for small refiners under the RFS program? (a)(1) Gasoline produced by a refiner, or foreign refiner (as defined at § 80.1165(a)), is exempt from the renewable fuel...

  14. On Syntactic and Semantic Action Refinement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Goltz, Ursula; Gorrieri, Roberto; Rensink, Arend

    1992-01-01

    The semantic definition of action refinement on labelled event structures is compared with the notion of syntactic substitution,which can be used as another notion of action refiment in a process algebraic setting. This is done by studying a process algebra equipped with the ACP sequential

  15. Quantum Geometry of Refined Topological Strings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aganagic, M.; Cheng, M.C.N.; Dijkgraaf, R.; Kreft, D.; Vafa, C.

    2012-01-01

    We consider branes in refined topological strings. We argue that their wavefunctions satisfy a Schrödinger equation depending on multiple times and prove this in the case where the topological string has a dual matrix model description. Furthermore, in the limit where one of the equivariant

  16. ILP-2 modeling and virtual screening of an FDA-approved library:a possible anticancer therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khalili, Saeed; Mohammadpour, Hemn; Shokrollahi Barough, Mahideh; Kokhaei, Parviz

    2016-06-23

    The members of the inhibitors of apoptosis protein (IAP) family inhibit diverse components of the caspase signaling pathway, notably caspase 3, 7, and 9. ILP-2 (BIRC-8) is the most recently identified member of the IAPs, mainly interacting with caspase 9. This interaction would eventually lead to death resistance in the case of cancerous cells. Therefore, structural modeling of ILP-2 and finding applicable inhibitors of its interaction with caspase 9 are a compelling challenge. Three main protein modeling approaches along with various model refinement measures were harnessed to achieve a reliable 3D model, using state-of-the-art software. Thereafter, the selected model was employed to perform virtual screening of an FDA approved library. A model built by a combinatorial approach (homology and ab initio approaches) was chosen as the best model. Model refinement processes successfully bolstered the model quality. Virtual screening of the compound library introduced several high affinity inhibitor candidates that interact with functional residues of ILP2. Given the 3D structure of the ILP2 molecule, we found promising inhibitory molecules. In addition to high affinity towards the ILP2 molecule, these molecules interact with residues that play pivotal rules in ILP2-caspase interaction. These molecules would inhibit ILP2-caspase interaction and consequently would lead to reactivated cell apoptosis through the caspases pathway.

  17. Government will shape China's refining boom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, H.

    1995-01-01

    China's refining system is undergoing a major overhaul. New refineries are being built as existing ones are upgraded and expanded. The success of refineries funded completely or partially by non-chinese companies will depend in part on Chinese government policy. There will be demand for products from third-party processing facilities, but hard current is necessary for the investors to repatriate profits and for china Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec) to bid on the products from such facilities. The limited convertibility of chinese current constitutes a major central control over the country's entire economy. This control can be affected by limiting product exchange participants and the volumes to be traded. Such a limitation, however, will reduce access of non-Chinese companies to China's markets, and is not likely to occur in the next 10 years. The paper discusses the current situation in capacity and in refining, capacity, expansion, refinery planning, construction projects, third-party processing, and the prospects for change

  18. Multivariate refined composite multiscale entropy analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Humeau-Heurtier, Anne

    2016-01-01

    Multiscale entropy (MSE) has become a prevailing method to quantify signals complexity. MSE relies on sample entropy. However, MSE may yield imprecise complexity estimation at large scales, because sample entropy does not give precise estimation of entropy when short signals are processed. A refined composite multiscale entropy (RCMSE) has therefore recently been proposed. Nevertheless, RCMSE is for univariate signals only. The simultaneous analysis of multi-channel (multivariate) data often over-performs studies based on univariate signals. We therefore introduce an extension of RCMSE to multivariate data. Applications of multivariate RCMSE to simulated processes reveal its better performances over the standard multivariate MSE. - Highlights: • Multiscale entropy quantifies data complexity but may be inaccurate at large scale. • A refined composite multiscale entropy (RCMSE) has therefore recently been proposed. • Nevertheless, RCMSE is adapted to univariate time series only. • We herein introduce an extension of RCMSE to multivariate data. • It shows better performances than the standard multivariate multiscale entropy.

  19. Effect of Cellulases and Xylanases on Refining Process and Kraft Pulp Properties.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamila Przybysz Buzała

    Full Text Available Samples of bleached kraft pine cellulosic pulp, either treated with an enzyme preparation (a Thermomyces lanuginosus xylanase, an Aspergillus sp. cellulase, and a multienzyme preparation NS-22086 containing both these activities or untreated, were refined in a laboratory PFI mill. The treatment with cellulases contained in the last two preparations significantly improved the pulp's susceptibility to refining (the target freeness value of 30°SR was achieved in a significantly shorter time, increased water retention value (WRV and fines contents while the weighted average fiber length was significantly reduced. These changes of pulp parameters caused deterioration of paper strength properties. The treatment with the xylanase, which partially hydrolyzed xylan, small amounts of which are associated with cellulose fibers, only slightly loosened the structure of fibers. These subtle changes positively affected the susceptibility of the pulp to refining (refining energy was significantly reduced and improved the static strength properties of paper. Thus, the treatment of kraft pulps with xylanases may lead to substantial savings of refining energy without negative effects on paper characteristics.

  20. Synthesis of Al-5Ti-1B Refiner by Melt Reaction Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LI He

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Al-5Ti-1B refiner was successfully prepared by melt reaction method. Through the thermodynamics calculation, the initial reaction temperature was determined. The influence of reaction temperature on microstructure and absorption rate of the alloy was investigated. The phase and microstructure of the alloy were observed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer. The Al-5Ti-1B refiner was extruded at high temperature to wire with the diameter of 9.5mm, and then the refinement experiment was carried out on pure aluminium. The results indicate that the refiner consists of TiB2, TiAl3 and α-Al, and the microstructure prepared at 850℃ is the optimum and the absorption rate of Ti and B matches the best. The TiAl3 and TiB2 phases distribute homogeneously in the matrix after extrusion. When adding 0.2%(mass fraction of Al-5Ti-1B refiner, the grain size of pure aluminium reduces from 3.99mm to 0.45mm.

  1. Region-of-interest volumetric visual hull refinement

    KAUST Repository

    Knoblauch, Daniel

    2010-01-01

    This paper introduces a region-of-interest visual hull refinement technique, based on flexible voxel grids for volumetric visual hull reconstructions. Region-of-interest refinement is based on a multipass process, beginning with a focussed visual hull reconstruction, resulting in a first 3D approximation of the target, followed by a region-of-interest estimation, tasked with identifying features of interest, which in turn are used to locally refine the voxel grid and extract a higher-resolution surface representation for those regions. This approach is illustrated for the reconstruction of avatars for use in tele-immersion environments, where head and hand regions are of higher interest. To allow reproducability and direct comparison a publicly available data set for human visual hull reconstruction is used. This paper shows that region-of-interest reconstruction of the target is faster and visually comparable to higher resolution focused visual hull reconstructions. This approach reduces the amount of data generated through the reconstruction, allowing faster post processing, as rendering or networking of the surface voxels. Reconstruction speeds support smooth interactions between the avatar and the virtual environment, while the improved resolution of its facial region and hands creates a higher-degree of immersion and potentially impacts the perception of body language, facial expressions and eye-to-eye contact. Copyright © 2010 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

  2. Marketing Approval of Ethical Kampo Medicines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hakamatsuka, Takashi

    2017-01-01

    Kampo medicine is an original traditional medicine in Japan. Currently, 148 ethical Kampo formulations (Kampo prescription drugs) are registered in the National Health Insurance Price List. Kampo medicines can be prescribed under the national insurance system, which shows that they are part of conventional medicine in Japan. Japan has a unified drug approval system that does not distinguish between Western and Kampo medicines, and both are subject to the same regulations. The application for the market approval of ethical Kampo medicines is based on the general notification for drugs, i.e., "Handling of Ethical Combination Drugs" in "Precautions Necessary When Applying for Drug Marketing Approval" (Yakushokushinsa Notification No. 1121-12 of November 21, 2014). Furthermore, applications for the market approval of ethical Kampo medicines should follow the Kampo-specific notification of "Handling of Ethical Kampo Medicines" (Yakushin Notification No. 804 of June 25, 1980). Data from comparative studies with standard decoctions must be submitted with approval applications according to Yakushin 2 Notification No. 120 of May 31, 1985. The safety, efficacy, and quality of Kampo medicines are comprehensively assured by the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, Good Manufacturing Practice, Good Agricultural and Collection Practices, marketing approval certificate, approval standard, and pharmacovigilance. I believe that the basic framework for the market approval of ethical Kampo medicines has been established as described above. The key factors for the practical application of superior manufacturing technology and research achievements and the promotion of drug development are the specific guidelines for the approval of drugs of herbal origin.

  3. Effect of Refining Processes on Magnitude and Nature of Malathion and Carbofuran Residues in Cotton Seed Oil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zayed, S.M.A.D.; Farghaly, M.; Mahdy, F.

    2005-01-01

    Cotton seeds obtained from 14 C-carbofuran or 14 C-malathion-treated plants contained 0.25% and 0.11% of the originally applied radioactivity, respectively. The concentration of malathion residues in oil, methanol soluble and in the seed cake amounted to 0.94, 2.6 and 1.7 ppm, respectively. Commercial processing procedures led to a gradual decrease in the total amount of 14 C-residues in oils with aged residues as well as in oil fortified with the radiolabelled insecticides. The refined oil contained only about 20% of the 14 C-residues originally present. The major residue in processed oil contained malathion, malathion monocarboxylic acid and alpha-(O,O-dimethyl phosphorodithio)-propionic acid. The concentration of 14 C-carbofuran residues in cotton seed oil, methanol extract and cake was 1.7, 12.3 and 2.4 ppm, respectively. The main residues in the oil were carbofuran and its phenol. The methanol solubles contained conjugated metabolites, which upon hydrolysis gave 3-hydroxy-carbofuran as a major product. Refinement reduced the residue in oil to 0.26 ppm. The residue in refined oil contained carbofuran and carbofuran phenol as main constituents together with smaller amounts of 3-hydroxy- and 3-keto carbofuran

  4. Development of a Refined Staff Group Trainer

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Quensel, Susan

    1999-01-01

    .... As a follow-on effort to the previous SGT project, the goal was to refine a brigade-level staff training program to more effectively and efficiently coordinate the activities within and between the...

  5. 40 CFR 145.31 - Approval process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Approval process. 145.31 Section 145.31 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) STATE UIC PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS Program Approval, Revision and Withdrawal § 145.31 Approval process. (a...

  6. 40 CFR 52.2122 - Approval status.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... sources covered by CTGs issued by the previous January. (b) EPA disapproved South Carolina's generic...) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) South Carolina § 52.2122 Approval status. (a) With the exceptions set forth in this subpart, the Administrator approves South Carolina's plans for...

  7. Discontinuous Galerkin discretization and hp-refinement for the resolution of the neutron transport equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fournier, Damien; Le-Tellier, Romain; Herbin, Raphaele

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents an hp-refinement method for a first order scalar transport reaction equation discretized by a discontinuous Galerkin method. First, the theoretical rates of convergence of h- and p-refinement are recalled and numerically tested. Then, in order to design some meshes, we propose two different estimators of the local error on the spatial domain. These quantities are analyzed and compared depending on the regularity of the solution so as to find the best way to lead the refinement process and the best strategy to choose between h- and p-refinement. Finally, the different possible refinement strategies are compared first on analytical examples and then on realistic applications for neutron transport in a nuclear reactor core. (authors)

  8. Effect of zirconium addition on welding of aluminum grain refined by titanium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaid, A.I.O.

    2011-01-01

    Aluminum and its alloys solidify in large grains columnar structure which tends to reduce their mechanical behaviour and surface quality. Therefore, they are industrially grain refined by titanium or titanium + boron. Furthermore, aluminum oxidizes in ordinary atmosphere which makes its weldability difficult and weak. Therefore, it is anticipated that the effect of addition of zirconium at a weight percentages of 0.1% (which proved to be an effective grain refiner on the weldability of aluminum grain refined by Ti) is worthwhile investigating. This formed the objective of this research work. In this paper, the effect of zirconium addition at a weight percentage of 0.1%, which corresponds to the peritctic limit on the aluminum-zirconium phase diagram, on the weldability of aluminum grain refined by Ti is investigated. Rolled sheets of commercially pure aluminum, Al grain refined Ti of 3 mm thickness were welded together using Gas Tungsten Arc Welding method (GTAW), formerly known as TIG. A constant air gap was maintained at a constant current level, 30 ampere AC, was used because it removes the oxides of the welding process under the same process parameters. Metallographic examination of weldments of the different combinations of aluminum and its microalloys at the heat affected zone, HAZ, and base metal was carried out and examined for width, porosity, cracks and microhardness. It was found that grain refining of commercially pure aluminum by Ti resulted in enhancement of its weldability. Similarly, addition of zirconium to Al grain refined by Ti resulted in further enhancement of the weldment. Photomicrographs of the HAZ regions are presented and discussed. (author)

  9. 75 FR 48302 - Notice of Request for Extension of Approval of an Information Collection; Credit Account Approval...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-10

    ....gov ). FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on credit account approval for reimbursable..., at (301) 851-2908. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Credit Account Approval for Reimbursable... Inspection Service [Docket No. APHIS-2010-0071] Notice of Request for Extension of Approval of an Information...

  10. 78 FR 54617 - Notice of Request for Extension of Approval of an Information Collection; Credit Account Approval...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-05

    ...] Notice of Request for Extension of Approval of an Information Collection; Credit Account Approval for... (202) 799-7039 before coming. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on credit account... Coordinator, at (301) 851-2908. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Credit Account Approval for Reimbursable...

  11. Validating neural-network refinements of nuclear mass models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Utama, R.; Piekarewicz, J.

    2018-01-01

    Background: Nuclear astrophysics centers on the role of nuclear physics in the cosmos. In particular, nuclear masses at the limits of stability are critical in the development of stellar structure and the origin of the elements. Purpose: We aim to test and validate the predictions of recently refined nuclear mass models against the newly published AME2016 compilation. Methods: The basic paradigm underlining the recently refined nuclear mass models is based on existing state-of-the-art models that are subsequently refined through the training of an artificial neural network. Bayesian inference is used to determine the parameters of the neural network so that statistical uncertainties are provided for all model predictions. Results: We observe a significant improvement in the Bayesian neural network (BNN) predictions relative to the corresponding "bare" models when compared to the nearly 50 new masses reported in the AME2016 compilation. Further, AME2016 estimates for the handful of impactful isotopes in the determination of r -process abundances are found to be in fairly good agreement with our theoretical predictions. Indeed, the BNN-improved Duflo-Zuker model predicts a root-mean-square deviation relative to experiment of σrms≃400 keV. Conclusions: Given the excellent performance of the BNN refinement in confronting the recently published AME2016 compilation, we are confident of its critical role in our quest for mass models of the highest quality. Moreover, as uncertainty quantification is at the core of the BNN approach, the improved mass models are in a unique position to identify those nuclei that will have the strongest impact in resolving some of the outstanding questions in nuclear astrophysics.

  12. Oil refining and product market developments in Europe

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McDonald, P.

    1991-01-01

    One political development in Europe that will affect the petroleum refining industry is the opening of a single market among the European Commission countries. Although the single market officially opens on January 1, 1993, a single market for energy will not happen at that time. Most European countries feel that refining is a strategic industry and adopt some form of protectionism in this sector. Environmental policy in Europe tends to be separate from energy policy, making conflicts in setting standards for emissions and fuel composition somewhat inevitable. For example, both environmental and energy policies favor a carbon tax on fuels; the EC environmental commission does not want to be seen as favoring nuclear power, so it favors penalizing all fuels about the same amount, while the energy commission says the carbon tax should be related to the fuel carbon content. A measure affecting the refining industry is the proposal for reducing sulfur in diesel fuel. By 1994 EC countries will have a common 0.2% standard and by 1996 a 0.05% standard for automotive diesel. To meet the latter standard, refineries will need upgrading at an estimated cost of US$4 billion. Another political consideration for the refining industry is whether eastern Europe should be part of the EC energy community. However, if there is a reluctance in the western European countries for a single western market, there is even less enthusiasm for an energy market that includes eastern Europe as well. In addition, there is a reluctance to accept that there should be a free flow of petroleum products from east to west

  13. Human subject research: reporting ethics approval and informed consent in 3 chiropractic journals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawrence, Dana J

    2011-11-01

    To date, there have been no reports of ethics board approval or informed consent within the chiropractic literature or within chiropractic research. The purpose of this study was to assess the reporting of ethics approval and informed consent in articles published during the 2008 volume year of 3 chiropractic research journals included in PubMed. A quantitative assessment of the articles published in each journal for the 2008 volume year was performed. Information collected included if the article involved human subject research, if it reported ethics board approval, and if informed consent was given to subjects. Data were collected as descriptive statistics (frequency counts and percentages). In aggregate, 50 articles of a total of 143 published involved human subject research (35%). 44 reported ethics board approval (88%), and 28 reported that informed consent had been obtained (56%). Forty-five percent of articles published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics involved human subject research (39/87), of which 95% reported ethics board approval (37/39) and 64% reported informed consent (25/39); 12.5% of articles from the Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association involved human subject research (5/40), of which 80% reported ethics board approval (4/5) and 40% reported informed consent (2/5); and 37.5% of articles published in Chiropractic and Osteopathy involved human subject research (6/16), of which 50% reported ethics board approval (3/6) and 17% reported informed consent (1/6). Overall, most articles reported ethics approval, and more than half reported consent. This was harmonious with research on this topic from other disciplines. This situation indicates a need for continued quality improvement and for better instruction and dissemination of information on these issues to researchers, to manuscript reviewers, to journal editors, and to the readers. Copyright © 2011 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Mosby

  14. Grain refinement of Aluminium alloys using friction stir processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khraisheh, M.

    2004-01-01

    Full text.Friction Stir Processing (FSP) is a new advanced material processing technique used to refine and homogenize the microstructure of sheet metals. FSP is a solid state processing technique that uses a rapidly rotating non-consumable high strength tool steel pin that extends from a cylindrical shoulder. The rotating pin is forced with a predetermined load into the work piece and moved along with the work pieces, while the rotating pin deforms and stirs the locally heated material. It is a hot working process in which a large amount of deformation is imparted to the sheet. FS processed zone is characterized by dynamic recrystallization which results in grain refinement . this promising emerging process needs further investigations to develop optimum process parameters to produce the desired microstructure. In this work, we present preliminary results on the effects of rotational and translational speeds on grain refinement of AA5052. Under certain processing conditions, sub-micron grain structure was produced using this technique

  15. Anomalies in the refinement of isoleucine

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berntsen, K.R.M.; Vriend, G.

    2014-01-01

    A study of isoleucines in protein structures solved using X-ray crystallography revealed a series of systematic trends for the two side-chain torsion angles chi1 and chi2 dependent on the resolution, secondary structure and refinement software used. The average torsion angles for the nine rotamers

  16. 40 CFR 52.1772 - Approval status.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ...) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) North Carolina § 52.1772 Approval status. (a) With the exceptions set forth in this subpart, the Administrator approves North Carolina's plans for... CTGs issued by the previous January. (b) New Source review permits issued pursuant to section 173 of...

  17. Removal of C and SiC from Si and FeSi during ladle refining and solidification

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Klevan, Ole Svein

    1997-12-31

    The utilization of solar energy by means of solar cells requires the Si to be very pure. The purity of Si is important for other applications as well. This thesis mainly studies the total removal of carbon from silicon and ferrosilicon. The decarburization includes removal of SiC particles by stirring and during casting in addition to reduction of dissolved carbon by gas purging. It was found that for three commercial qualities of FeSi75, Refined, Gransil, and Standard lumpy, the refined quality is lowest in carbon, followed by Gransil and Standard. A decarburization model was developed that shows the carbon removal by oxidation of dissolved carbon to be a slow process at atmospheric pressure. Gas stirring experiments have shown that silicon carbide particles are removed by transfer to the ladle wall. The casting method of ferrosilicon has a strong influence on the final total carbon content in the commercial alloy. Shipped refined FeSi contains about 100 ppm total carbon, while the molten alloy contains roughly 200 ppm. The total carbon out of the FeSi-furnace is about 1000 ppm. It is suggested that low values of carbon could be obtained on an industrial scale by injection of silica combined with the use of vacuum. Also, the casting system could be designed to give low carbon in part of the product. 122 refs., 50 figs., 24 tabs.

  18. A comparison between the Structural Results obtained by X-ray Single Crystal Data and by Neutron Powder Data for BaVs/sb3/

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marezio, M.

    1986-01-01

    The structure of BaVs/sb3/, as refined from X-ray single-crystal data to an R factor of 0.011, is compared to the structure of the same compound obtained from neutron powder data (Rsb(ro) = 6.82, Rsb(psilon) = 4.09). As expected, the X-ray standard deviations of the positional and thermal parameters are smaller than the corresponding neutron standard deviations. However, the dynamical disorder deduced from the anomalously large thermal vibrations of the vanadium atoms obtained from the X-ray data is also evidenced by the neutron refinement. On the other hand, the neutron standard deviations of the lattice parameters are smaller than the X-ray counterparts

  19. Automata Learning through Counterexample Guided Abstraction Refinement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aarts, Fides; Heidarian, Faranak; Kuppens, Harco

    2012-01-01

    to a small set of abstract events that can be handled by automata learning tools. In this article, we show how such abstractions can be constructed fully automatically for a restricted class of extended finite state machines in which one can test for equality of data parameters, but no operations on data...... are allowed. Our approach uses counterexample-guided abstraction refinement: whenever the current abstraction is too coarse and induces nondeterministic behavior, the abstraction is refined automatically. Using Tomte, a prototype tool implementing our algorithm, we have succeeded to learn – fully......Abstraction is the key when learning behavioral models of realistic systems. Hence, in most practical applications where automata learning is used to construct models of software components, researchers manually define abstractions which, depending on the history, map a large set of concrete events...

  20. Grain size refinement of inconel 718 thermomechanical processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okimoto, P.C.

    1988-01-01

    Inconel 718 is a Ni-Fe precipitation treated superalloy. It presents good thermal fatigue properties when the material has small grain size. The aim of this work is to study the grain size refinement by thermomechanical processing, through observations of the microstructural evolution and the influence of some of the process variables in the final grain size. The results have shown that this refinement occured by static recrystallization. The presence of precipitates have influenced the final grain size if the deformations are below 60%. For greater deformations the grain size is independent of the precipitate distribution in the matrix and tends to a limit size of 5 μm. (author)

  1. 9 CFR 147.52 - Approved tests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Approved tests. 147.52 Section 147.52 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE... Approved Tests § 147.52 Approved tests. (a) The procedures for the bacteriological examination of poultry...

  2. 30 CFR 14.10 - Post-approval product audit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ..., AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS REQUIREMENTS FOR THE APPROVAL OF FLAME-RESISTANT CONVEYOR BELTS General Provisions § 14.10 Post-approval product audit. (a) Approved conveyor belts will be subject to... based. MSHA will select an approved conveyor belt to be audited; the selected belt will be...

  3. The US petroleum refining industry in the 1980's

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1990-10-11

    As part of the EIA program on petroleum, The US Petroleum Refining Industry in the 1980's, presents a historical analysis of the changes that took place in the US petroleum refining industry during the 1980's. It is intended to be of interest to analysts in the petroleum industry, state and federal government officials, Congress, and the general public. The report consists of six chapters and four appendices. Included is a detailed description of the major events and factors that affected the domestic refining industry during this period. Some of the changes that took place in the 1980's are the result of events that started in the 1970's. The impact of these events on US refinery configuration, operations, economics, and company ownership are examined. 23 figs., 11 tabs.

  4. Lossless, Near-Lossless, and Refinement Coding of Bi-level Images

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Martins, Bo; Forchhammer, Søren Otto

    1999-01-01

    We present general and unified algorithms for lossy/lossless coding of bi-level images. The compression is realized by applying arithmetic coding to conditional probabilities. As in the current JBIG standard the conditioning may be specified by a template.For better compression, the more general...... to the specialized soft pattern matching techniques which work better for text. Template based refinement coding is applied for lossy-to-lossless refinement. Introducing only a small amount of loss in halftoned test images, compression is increased by up to a factor of four compared with JBIG. Lossy, lossless......, and refinement decoding speed and lossless encoding speed are less than a factor of two slower than JBIG. The (de)coding method is proposed as part of JBIG2, an emerging international standard for lossless/lossy compression of bi-level images....

  5. Numerical solution of plasma fluid equations using locally refined grids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colella, P.

    1997-01-01

    This paper describes a numerical method for the solution of plasma fluid equations on block-structured, locally refined grids. The plasma under consideration is typical of those used for the processing of semiconductors. The governing equations consist of a drift-diffusion model of the electrons and an isothermal model of the ions coupled by Poisson's equation. A discretization of the equations is given for a uniform spatial grid, and a time-split integration scheme is developed. The algorithm is then extended to accommodate locally refined grids. This extension involves the advancement of the discrete system on a hierarchy of levels, each of which represents a degree of refinement, together with synchronization steps to ensure consistency across levels. A brief discussion of a software implementation is followed by a presentation of numerical results

  6. EXPTIME-Completeness of Thorough Refinement on Modal Transition Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Beneš, Nikola; Křetínský, Jan; Larsen, Kim Guldstrand

    2012-01-01

    Modal transition systems (MTS), a specification formalism introduced more than 20 years ago, has recently received a considerable attention in several different areas. Many of the fundamental questions related to MTSs have already been answered. However, the problem of the exact computational...... complexity of thorough refinement checking between two finite MTSs remained unsolved. We settle down this question by showing EXPTIME-completeness of thorough refinement checking on finite MTSs. The upper-bound result relies on a novel algorithm running in single exponential time providing a direct goal...

  7. National oil companies' presence to hike US refining competition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that the downstream segment of the U.S. petroleum business is virtually certain to become more competitive because of the growing presence of national oil companies in the country's refining industry. That's a forecast by New York investment firm Kidder Peabody. It cites a plan by Mexico's Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to form a joint venture with Shell Oil Co. covering Shell's 225,000 b/d Deer Park, Tex., refinery as the latest example of national oil companies' movement into U.S. refining

  8. Limit of grain refinement during ECAP process. Temperature influence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chuvil'deev, V.N.; Kopylov, V.I.; Nokhrin, A.V.; Makarov, I.M.; Lopatin, Yu.G.

    2004-01-01

    Experimental and theoretical study results are reported for the process of deformation grain refinement under severe plastic deformation. A generalization is made for experimental study results on deformation dispersing of unalloyed metals and aluminium and magnesium base alloys. The model is built that allows calculating the value of minimum grain size attained by the method of equal-channel angular pressing. The expressions are derived which describe the dependence of grain refinement limit on the nature of material and the temperature of severe plastic deformation [ru

  9. Process technology for refining crude soybean oil – a product from ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Process technology for refining crude soybean oil – a product from soycake meal production in Ghana. ... yield of 83.3 per cent was recorded. Results of quality assessment of the final laboratory refined oil compared favourably with Ghana Standards Board's specification for edible soybean oil. Ghana Journal of Science Vol.

  10. Robust Refinement as Implemented in TOPAS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stone, K.; Stephens, P

    2010-01-01

    A robust refinement procedure is implemented in the program TOPAS through an iterative reweighting of the data. Examples are given of the procedure as applied to fitting partially overlapped peaks by full and partial models and also of the structures of ibuprofen and acetaminophen in the presence of unmodeled impurity contributions

  11. Requirements for US regulatory approval of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petti, D.A.; Haire, J.C.

    1993-12-01

    The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the first fusion machine that will have sufficient decay heat and activation product inventory to pose potential nuclear safety concerns. As a result, nuclear safety and environmental issues will be much more important in the approval process for the design, siting, construction, and operation of ITER in the United States than previous fusion devices, such as the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor. The purpose of this report is (a) to provide an overview of the regulatory approval process for a Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear facility; (b) to present the dose limits used by DOE to protect workers, the public, and the environment from the risks of exposure to radiation and hazardous materials; (c) to discuss some key nuclear safety-related issues that must be addressed early in the Engineering Design Activities (EDA) to obtain regulatory approval; and (d) to provide general guidelines to the ITER Joint Central Team (JCT) concerning the development of a regulatory framework for the ITER project

  12. 3Drefine: an interactive web server for efficient protein structure refinement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Debswapna; Nowotny, Jackson; Cao, Renzhi; Cheng, Jianlin

    2016-07-08

    3Drefine is an interactive web server for consistent and computationally efficient protein structure refinement with the capability to perform web-based statistical and visual analysis. The 3Drefine refinement protocol utilizes iterative optimization of hydrogen bonding network combined with atomic-level energy minimization on the optimized model using a composite physics and knowledge-based force fields for efficient protein structure refinement. The method has been extensively evaluated on blind CASP experiments as well as on large-scale and diverse benchmark datasets and exhibits consistent improvement over the initial structure in both global and local structural quality measures. The 3Drefine web server allows for convenient protein structure refinement through a text or file input submission, email notification, provided example submission and is freely available without any registration requirement. The server also provides comprehensive analysis of submissions through various energy and statistical feedback and interactive visualization of multiple refined models through the JSmol applet that is equipped with numerous protein model analysis tools. The web server has been extensively tested and used by many users. As a result, the 3Drefine web server conveniently provides a useful tool easily accessible to the community. The 3Drefine web server has been made publicly available at the URL: http://sysbio.rnet.missouri.edu/3Drefine/. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  13. An adaptive grid refinement strategy for the simulation of negative streamers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Montijn, C.; Hundsdorfer, W.; Ebert, U.

    2006-01-01

    The evolution of negative streamers during electric breakdown of a non-attaching gas can be described by a two-fluid model for electrons and positive ions. It consists of continuity equations for the charged particles including drift, diffusion and reaction in the local electric field, coupled to the Poisson equation for the electric potential. The model generates field enhancement and steep propagating ionization fronts at the tip of growing ionized filaments. An adaptive grid refinement method for the simulation of these structures is presented. It uses finite volume spatial discretizations and explicit time stepping, which allows the decoupling of the grids for the continuity equations from those for the Poisson equation. Standard refinement methods in which the refinement criterion is based on local error monitors fail due to the pulled character of the streamer front that propagates into a linearly unstable state. We present a refinement method which deals with all these features. Tests on one-dimensional streamer fronts as well as on three-dimensional streamers with cylindrical symmetry (hence effectively 2D for numerical purposes) are carried out successfully. Results on fine grids are presented, they show that such an adaptive grid method is needed to capture the streamer characteristics well. This refinement strategy enables us to adequately compute negative streamers in pure gases in the parameter regime where a physical instability appears: branching streamers

  14. 7 CFR 1710.406 - Loan approval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Loan approval. 1710.406 Section 1710.406 Agriculture... GENERAL AND PRE-LOAN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES COMMON TO ELECTRIC LOANS AND GUARANTEES Application Requirements and Procedures for Loans § 1710.406 Loan approval. (a) A loan is approved when the Administrator...

  15. 40 CFR 123.61 - Approval process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Approval process. 123.61 Section 123... REQUIREMENTS Program Approval, Revision, and Withdrawal § 123.61 Approval process. (a) After determining that a...; and (6) Briefly outline the fundamental aspects of the State's proposed program, and the process for...

  16. Process for refining naphthalene, etc

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Petroff, G

    1922-05-13

    A process is described for the refining of naphthalene, its distillates, and mineral oils by the use of dilute sulfuric acid, characterized in that the oils are oxidized with oxygen of the air and thereafter are treated with 65 to 75 percent sulfuric acid to separate the unsaturated hydrocarbons in the form of polymerized products whereby, if necessary, heating and application of usual or higher pressure can take place.

  17. Bauxite Mining and Alumina Refining

    OpenAIRE

    Donoghue, A. Michael; Frisch, Neale; Olney, David

    2014-01-01

    Objective: To describe bauxite mining and alumina refining processes and to outline the relevant physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial health risks. Methods: Review article. Results: The most important risks relate to noise, ergonomics, trauma, and caustic soda splashes of the skin/eyes. Other risks of note relate to fatigue, heat, and solar ultraviolet and for some operations tropical diseases, venomous/dangerous animals, and remote locations. Exposures to bauxite dust,...

  18. SFESA: a web server for pairwise alignment refinement by secondary structure shifts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tong, Jing; Pei, Jimin; Grishin, Nick V

    2015-09-03

    Protein sequence alignment is essential for a variety of tasks such as homology modeling and active site prediction. Alignment errors remain the main cause of low-quality structure models. A bioinformatics tool to refine alignments is needed to make protein alignments more accurate. We developed the SFESA web server to refine pairwise protein sequence alignments. Compared to the previous version of SFESA, which required a set of 3D coordinates for a protein, the new server will search a sequence database for the closest homolog with an available 3D structure to be used as a template. For each alignment block defined by secondary structure elements in the template, SFESA evaluates alignment variants generated by local shifts and selects the best-scoring alignment variant. A scoring function that combines the sequence score of profile-profile comparison and the structure score of template-derived contact energy is used for evaluation of alignments. PROMALS pairwise alignments refined by SFESA are more accurate than those produced by current advanced alignment methods such as HHpred and CNFpred. In addition, SFESA also improves alignments generated by other software. SFESA is a web-based tool for alignment refinement, designed for researchers to compute, refine, and evaluate pairwise alignments with a combined sequence and structure scoring of alignment blocks. To our knowledge, the SFESA web server is the only tool that refines alignments by evaluating local shifts of secondary structure elements. The SFESA web server is available at http://prodata.swmed.edu/sfesa.

  19. Reintroducing electrostatics into macromolecular crystallographic refinement: application to neutron crystallography and DNA hydration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenn, Timothy D; Schnieders, Michael J; Mustyakimov, Marat; Wu, Chuanjie; Langan, Paul; Pande, Vijay S; Brunger, Axel T

    2011-04-13

    Most current crystallographic structure refinements augment the diffraction data with a priori information consisting of bond, angle, dihedral, planarity restraints, and atomic repulsion based on the Pauli exclusion principle. Yet, electrostatics and van der Waals attraction are physical forces that provide additional a priori information. Here, we assess the inclusion of electrostatics for the force field used for all-atom (including hydrogen) joint neutron/X-ray refinement. Two DNA and a protein crystal structure were refined against joint neutron/X-ray diffraction data sets using force fields without electrostatics or with electrostatics. Hydrogen-bond orientation/geometry favors the inclusion of electrostatics. Refinement of Z-DNA with electrostatics leads to a hypothesis for the entropic stabilization of Z-DNA that may partly explain the thermodynamics of converting the B form of DNA to its Z form. Thus, inclusion of electrostatics assists joint neutron/X-ray refinements, especially for placing and orienting hydrogen atoms. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. 40 CFR 80.245 - How does a small refiner apply for a sulfur baseline?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... sulfur baseline? 80.245 Section 80.245 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... Provisions § 80.245 How does a small refiner apply for a sulfur baseline? (a) Any refiner seeking small refiner status must apply for a refinery sulfur baseline by the deadline under § 80.235 for each of the...

  1. Refining of fossil resin flotation concentrate from western coal. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jensen, G.F.; Miller, J.D.

    1995-02-16

    During the past several years, significant research efforts have been made to develop process technology for the selective flotation of fossil resin from western coals. As a result of these efforts, several new flotation technologies have been developed. Operation of a proof-of-concept continuous flotation circuit showed the selective flotation process to be sufficiently profitable to justify the development of a fossil resin industry. However, little attention has been given to the refining of the fossil resin flotation concentrate although solvent refining is a critical step for the fossil resin to become a marketable product. In view of this situation, DOE funded this two-year project to evaluate the following aspects of the fossil resin refining technology: 1) Characterization of the fossil resin flotation concentrate and its refined products; 2) Kinetics of fossil resin extraction; 3) Effects of operating variables on solvent extraction; 4) Extraction solvents; 5) Proof-of-concept continuous refining tests; and 6) Technical and economic analysis. The results from this research effort have led to the following conclusions: Hexane- or heptane-refined fossil resin has a light-yellow color, a melting point of 140 - 142{degrees}C, a density of 1.034 gram/cm, and good solubility in nonpolar solvents. Among the four solvents evaluated (hexane, heptane, toluene and ethyl acetate), hexane is the most appropriate solvent based on overall technical and economic considerations. Batch extraction tests and kinetic studies suggest that the main interaction between the resin and the solvent is expected to be the forces associated with solvation phenomena. Temperature has the most significant effect on extraction rate. With hexane as the solvent, a recovery of 90% cam be achieved at 50{degrees}C and 10% solids concentration with moderate agitation for 1 hour.

  2. PbSe nanocubes obtained by high-energy milling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rojas-Chavez, H., E-mail: hrojasc@ipn.mx [Centro de Investigacion en Ciencia Aplicada y Tecnologia Avanzada - IPN (Mexico); Reyes-Carmona, F. [Facultad de Quimica - UNAM (Mexico); Achimovicova, M. [Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geotechnics (Slovakia); Daneu, N. [Jozef Stefan Institute, Department for Nanostructured Materials (Slovenia); Jaramillo-Vigueras, D. [Centro de Investigacion e Innovacion Tecnologica - IPN (Mexico)

    2012-06-15

    In this study, PbSe nanocubes were obtained by high-energy milling, and their optical properties were investigated by measuring the UV-VIS-IR spectra in the range of 200-2,000 nm. The optical absorption of all samples showed a strong UV emission band at 1.45 eV. Previously, to obtain only PbSe nanocubes, an intermediate phase was identified, PbSeO{sub 3}. Although both PbSeO{sub 3} and PbSe were traced through this study, a major effort is devoted to characterize the latter. To trace how chemical transitions evolve from precursors to PbSe, X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement were carried out. Therefore, the following parameters were evaluated as a function of milling time: phase percentages, area-to-volume ratio, average crystallite dimensions, specific surface area, and morphology changes. To corroborate previous findings, nitrogen adsorption and transmission electron microscopy techniques were used. All the set experimental results unambiguously confirm that crystallites show a cubic morphology, with its average crystallite size distribution being around 24 nm.

  3. Refined reservoir description to maximize oil recovery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flewitt, W.E.

    1975-01-01

    To assure maximized oil recovery from older pools, reservoir description has been advanced by fully integrating original open-hole logs and the recently introduced interpretive techniques made available through cased-hole wireline saturation logs. A refined reservoir description utilizing normalized original wireline porosity logs has been completed in the Judy Creek Beaverhill Lake ''A'' Pool, a reefal carbonate pool with current potential productivity of 100,000 BOPD and 188 active wells. Continuous porosity was documented within a reef rim and cap while discontinuous porous lenses characterized an interior lagoon. With the use of pulsed neutron logs and production data a separate water front and pressure response was recognized within discrete environmental units. The refined reservoir description aided in reservoir simulation model studies and quantifying pool performance. A pattern water flood has now replaced the original peripheral bottom water drive to maximize oil recovery

  4. Refined open intersection numbers and the Kontsevich-Penner matrix model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alexandrov, Alexander [Center for Geometry and Physics, Institute for Basic Science (IBS),Pohang 37673 (Korea, Republic of); Centre de Recherches Mathématiques (CRM), Université de Montréal,Montréal (Canada); Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Concordia University,Montréal (Canada); Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP),Moscow (Russian Federation); Buryak, Alexandr [Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland); Tessler, Ran J. [Institute for Theoretical Studies, ETH Zurich,Zurich (Switzerland)

    2017-03-23

    A study of the intersection theory on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces with boundary was recently initiated in a work of R. Pandharipande, J.P. Solomon and the third author, where they introduced open intersection numbers in genus 0. Their construction was later generalized to all genera by J.P. Solomon and the third author. In this paper we consider a refinement of the open intersection numbers by distinguishing contributions from surfaces with different numbers of boundary components, and we calculate all these numbers. We then construct a matrix model for the generating series of the refined open intersection numbers and conjecture that it is equivalent to the Kontsevich-Penner matrix model. An evidence for the conjecture is presented. Another refinement of the open intersection numbers, which describes the distribution of the boundary marked points on the boundary components, is also discussed.

  5. Refined open intersection numbers and the Kontsevich-Penner matrix model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexandrov, Alexander; Buryak, Alexandr; Tessler, Ran J.

    2017-01-01

    A study of the intersection theory on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces with boundary was recently initiated in a work of R. Pandharipande, J.P. Solomon and the third author, where they introduced open intersection numbers in genus 0. Their construction was later generalized to all genera by J.P. Solomon and the third author. In this paper we consider a refinement of the open intersection numbers by distinguishing contributions from surfaces with different numbers of boundary components, and we calculate all these numbers. We then construct a matrix model for the generating series of the refined open intersection numbers and conjecture that it is equivalent to the Kontsevich-Penner matrix model. An evidence for the conjecture is presented. Another refinement of the open intersection numbers, which describes the distribution of the boundary marked points on the boundary components, is also discussed.

  6. State of European refining industry is less bleak than reported

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenkins, J.H.

    1997-01-01

    It is difficult to pick up a trade publication without reading of the imminent demise of the European refining industry. Major oil companies are combining operations to minimize costs. Refineries are being shuttered, and analysts are calling for the immediate closure of many more plants. There is little doubt that European cracking margins have fallen since the early 1990s, in step with the rest of the world. However, the refining industry in Europe does not, in the opinion of Pace Consultants Inc., suffer from some overriding fundamental flaw that dooms it to low margins forever. The intent of this article is to put some of the industry's recent events in perspective, to discuss some of the fundamental differences between American and European operations, and to perhaps lay to rest the idea that refining is somehow dead in Europe

  7. Automating crystallographic structure solution and refinement of protein–ligand complexes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Echols, Nathaniel; Moriarty, Nigel W.; Klei, Herbert E.; Afonine, Pavel V.; Bunkóczi, Gábor; Headd, Jeffrey J.; McCoy, Airlie J.; Oeffner, Robert D.; Read, Randy J.; Terwilliger, Thomas C.; Adams, Paul D.

    2013-01-01

    A software system for automated protein–ligand crystallography has been implemented in the Phenix suite. This significantly reduces the manual effort required in high-throughput crystallographic studies. High-throughput drug-discovery and mechanistic studies often require the determination of multiple related crystal structures that only differ in the bound ligands, point mutations in the protein sequence and minor conformational changes. If performed manually, solution and refinement requires extensive repetition of the same tasks for each structure. To accelerate this process and minimize manual effort, a pipeline encompassing all stages of ligand building and refinement, starting from integrated and scaled diffraction intensities, has been implemented in Phenix. The resulting system is able to successfully solve and refine large collections of structures in parallel without extensive user intervention prior to the final stages of model completion and validation

  8. Error sensitivity to refinement: a criterion for optimal grid adaptation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luchini, Paolo; Giannetti, Flavio; Citro, Vincenzo

    2017-12-01

    Most indicators used for automatic grid refinement are suboptimal, in the sense that they do not really minimize the global solution error. This paper concerns with a new indicator, related to the sensitivity map of global stability problems, suitable for an optimal grid refinement that minimizes the global solution error. The new criterion is derived from the properties of the adjoint operator and provides a map of the sensitivity of the global error (or its estimate) to a local mesh refinement. Examples are presented for both a scalar partial differential equation and for the system of Navier-Stokes equations. In the last case, we also present a grid-adaptation algorithm based on the new estimator and on the FreeFem++ software that improves the accuracy of the solution of almost two order of magnitude by redistributing the nodes of the initial computational mesh.

  9. Architectural Refinement for the Design of Survivable Systems

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Ellison, Robert

    2001-01-01

    This paper describes a process for systematically refining an enterprise system architecture to resist recognize and recover from deliberate, malicious attacks by applying reusable design primitives...

  10. 40 CFR 52.1323 - Approval status.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... on January 16, 1979 (44 FR 3274) are met. (b) The Administrator approves Rule 10 CSR 10-2.290 as.... (c) The Administrator approves Rule 10 CSR 10-2.230 as identified under § 52.1320, paragraph (c)(70... SIP would be the emission limits stated in the rule. (d) The Administrator approves Rule 10 CSR 10-5...

  11. Financial optimisation and risk management in refining activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fiorenzani, S.

    2006-01-01

    The real options approach has become a benchmark in real assets evaluation and optimal management problems, especially in liberalised and competitive markets such as the oil and hydrocarbon markets. This paper describes how the same approach can be a useful tool for both risk management decisions and the financial optimisation problem. Refineries are black boxes, which can be used for the transformation of crude oil into more refined hydrocarbon products. These black boxes are characterised by operational flexibilities and constraints, which should be optimally managed in order to maximise the refiner's economic goals. Stochastic dynamic programming represents the right mathematical instrument employed to solve the decision-making problem in such an economic environment. (author)

  12. Pushing the dinosaurs[Competition in the refining industry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cobb, C B [Ernst and Young/Wright Killen (United States)

    1999-03-01

    The need for change in the business of oil refining is expressed. Since 1981, only three years have yielded high profit margins. The future is said to be in maximising performance from existing assets. In the past, the industry focused on the asset-based strategy of refining crude and getting it into the pipelines as early as possible but apparently the future lies in identifying customer needs and satisfying those needs as quickly as possible. In other words, selling the most product at the highest price. The strategy and tactics for achieving these goals are itemised and discussed. In short, it is essential that oil and gas companies make the transformation from asset focus to customer focus. (UK)

  13. R and D status of oxide electro-refining reprocessing technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myochin, Munetaka

    2005-01-01

    The oxide electro-refining pyrochemical reprocessing is excellent in the resistivity against nuclear material diversion and in the suitability for oxide fuel cycle and has an excellent affinity for the technology of fuel production using the vibropac method. The oxide electro-refining pyrochemical reprocessing system has therefore been examined as a part of studies of commercialization of FBR cycle. This report outlines the examination results of fundamental data acquired for the system design. (M.H.)

  14. Structure refinement of polycrystalline orthorhombic yttrium ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    The perovskite ceramic phases with composition Ca1−YTiO3+ (where = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3; hereafter CYT-10, CYT-20 and CYT-30) have been synthesized by solid state reaction at 1050°C. The structure refinement using general structure analysis system (GSAS) software converges to satisfactory profile indicators ...

  15. 30 CFR 14.7 - Approval marking and distribution records.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ..., EVALUATION, AND APPROVAL OF MINING PRODUCTS REQUIREMENTS FOR THE APPROVAL OF FLAME-RESISTANT CONVEYOR BELTS General Provisions § 14.7 Approval marking and distribution records. (a) An approved conveyor belt must be marketed only under the name specified in the approval. (b) Approved conveyor belt must be legibly and...

  16. Structural Rietveld refinement and vibrational study of MgCr{sub x}Fe{sub 2−x}O{sub 4} spinel ferrites

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sabri, K. [Laboratoire des Sciences et technique de l’Environnement et de la Valorisation, département de Génie des Procédés, Université de Mostaganem, Mostaganem (Algeria); Rais, A., E-mail: amrais@yahoo.com [Laboratoire des Sciences et technique de l’Environnement et de la Valorisation, département de Génie des Procédés, Université de Mostaganem, Mostaganem (Algeria); Taibi, K. [Laboratoire de Science et Génie des Matériaux, USTHB, Alger, Algéria (Algeria); Moreau, M.; Ouddane, B. [Laboratory of LASIR Spectrochemistry, University of Science and Technology, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq (France); Addou, A. [Laboratoire des Sciences et technique de l’Environnement et de la Valorisation, département de Génie des Procédés, Université de Mostaganem, Mostaganem (Algeria)

    2016-11-15

    Spinel ferrites with the general formula MgCr{sub x}Fe{sub 2−x}O{sub 4} (0≤x≤1) were synthesized by the standard ceramic technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction. The XRD patterns confirmed that the mixed ferrite samples are in the cubic spinel structure which is further validated by Rietveld refinement in the space group Fd3m. The crystal structure and cell parameters were refined by Rietveld analysis. The vibrational study was achieved using Fourier Transform-InfraRed (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy. From FT-IR band frequencies, the force constants K{sub t} and K{sub o} , for tetrahedral (A) and octahedral (B) sites respectively, have been calculated and discussed with the trend of bond lengths obtained from Rietveld refinement. For all compositions, Raman spectra revealed the five active modes showing the vibration of O{sup 2−} ions at both the A-site and B-site ions. The frequencies trend with chromium content of both FT-IR and Raman spectra showed a shift toward higher values for all modes.

  17. Structural refinement and coarsening in deformed metals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, N.; Huang, X.; Xing, Q.

    2005-01-01

    The microstructural refinement by plastic deformation is analysed in terms of key parameters, the spacing between and the misorientation angle across the boundaries subdividing the structure. Coarsening of such structures by annealing is also characterised. For both deformed and annealed structur...

  18. Refinement from a control problem to program

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schenke, Michael; Ravn, Anders P.

    1996-01-01

    The distinguishing feature of the presented refinement approach is that it links formalisms from a top level requirements notation down to programs together in a mathematically coherent development trajectory. The approach uses Duration Calculus, a real-time interval logic, to specifyrequirements...

  19. Refined Analysis of Fatigue Crack Initiation Life of Beam-to-Column Welded Connections of Steel Frame under Strong Earthquake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weilian Qu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a refined analysis for evaluating low-cycle fatigue crack initiation life of welded beam-to-column connections of steel frame structures under strong earthquake excitation. To consider different length scales between typical beam and column components as well as a few crucial beam-to-column welded connections, a multiscale finite element (FE model having three different length scales is formulated. The model can accurately analyze the inelastic seismic response of a steel frame and then obtain in detail elastoplastic stress and strain field near the welded zone of the connections. It is found that the welded zone is subjected to multiaxial nonproportional loading during strong ground motion and the elastoplastic stress-strain field of the welded zone is three-dimensional. Then, using the correlation of the Fatemi-Socie (FS parameter versus fatigue life obtained by the experimental crack initiation fatigue data of the structural steel weldment subjected to multiaxial loading, the refined evaluation approach of fatigue crack initiation life is developed based on the equivalent plastic strain at fatigue critical position of beam end seams of crucial welded connections when the steel frame is subjected to the strong earthquake excitation.

  20. Refinement of NMR structures using implicit solvent and advanced sampling techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jianhan; Im, Wonpil; Brooks, Charles L

    2004-12-15

    NMR biomolecular structure calculations exploit simulated annealing methods for conformational sampling and require a relatively high level of redundancy in the experimental restraints to determine quality three-dimensional structures. Recent advances in generalized Born (GB) implicit solvent models should make it possible to combine information from both experimental measurements and accurate empirical force fields to improve the quality of NMR-derived structures. In this paper, we study the influence of implicit solvent on the refinement of protein NMR structures and identify an optimal protocol of utilizing these improved force fields. To do so, we carry out structure refinement experiments for model proteins with published NMR structures using full NMR restraints and subsets of them. We also investigate the application of advanced sampling techniques to NMR structure refinement. Similar to the observations of Xia et al. (J.Biomol. NMR 2002, 22, 317-331), we find that the impact of implicit solvent is rather small when there is a sufficient number of experimental restraints (such as in the final stage of NMR structure determination), whether implicit solvent is used throughout the calculation or only in the final refinement step. The application of advanced sampling techniques also seems to have minimal impact in this case. However, when the experimental data are limited, we demonstrate that refinement with implicit solvent can substantially improve the quality of the structures. In particular, when combined with an advanced sampling technique, the replica exchange (REX) method, near-native structures can be rapidly moved toward the native basin. The REX method provides both enhanced sampling and automatic selection of the most native-like (lowest energy) structures. An optimal protocol based on our studies first generates an ensemble of initial structures that maximally satisfy the available experimental data with conventional NMR software using a simplified

  1. Effect of Duration on Ti Grain Refinement of A356 and Melt Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gürsoy, Özen; Erzi, Eray; Yüksel, Çağlar; Dispinar, Derya

    Grain refinement of aluminium alloys increases fluidity and feedability; and thus higher mechanical properties and decreased porosity is achieved. Typically, various ratios of Ti-B is used as grain refiner. It is well known that due to the sedimentation, the effectiveness of the grain refinement decreases which is called the fading effect. In this work, this effect has been investigated by means of melt quality. Two different melting temperatures were selected (725 and 750C) and samples were cast into die and sand mould. After the addition of grain refiners, samples were collected at 10 minutes of interval. Metallographic examinations were carried out where microstructural change and porosity distribution were investigated. The results were correlated with bifilm index (i.e. melt quality).

  2. Effects of grain refinement on the rheological behaviors of semisolid hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yan, M.; Luo, W.

    2007-01-01

    The paper experimentally investigated the effects of grain refinement on the rheological response of Al and hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys. Selected refiners included K 2 TiF 6 , K 2 TiF 6 plus graphite and Al-5Ti-B. The apparent viscosity of semisolid Al alloys was measured during solidification. Samples at different solid fractions were quenched to observe the microstructure. It was found that grain refinement drastically lowered the apparent viscosity of Al-Si alloys. Among selected refiners, the effect of Al-5Ti-B was the best. The effect of K 2 TiF 6 plus graphite was better than that of K 2 TiF 6 . Silicon contents in Al alloys affected the apparent viscosity. With increasing silicon content the apparent viscosity decreased, resulted from promotion of silicon to both refining effects of titanium and boron

  3. Drugs Approved for Kidney (Renal Cell) Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Your Treatment Research Drugs Approved for Kidney (Renal Cell) Cancer This page lists cancer drugs approved by the ... not listed here. Drugs Approved for Kidney (Renal Cell) Cancer Afinitor (Everolimus) Aldesleukin Avastin (Bevacizumab) Axitinib Bevacizumab Cabometyx ( ...

  4. Incorporating consideration of health impacts into land use development approval processes: Development of a Health Background Study Framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moloughney, Brent W; Bursey, Gayle E; Neumann, Jana; Leeming, Daniel H; Gutmann, Christine E; Sivanand, Bhavna; Mowat, David L

    2014-09-12

    This project involved development of a Health Background Study (HBS) Framework to support consideration of health impacts within municipalities' approval process for land use development. Peel Public Health and Toronto Public Health led the project with the participation of planners, urban designers, engineers, public health staff and development industry representatives. Historical growth in the Region of Peel and suburban Toronto has resulted in extensive low-density development, creating car-dependent communities with disconnected streets and segregated land uses. The inclusion of an HBS in developers' applications to municipalities is one approach by which health-related expectations for the built environment can be established within the approval process. Development of the HBS Framework used the six core elements of the built environment with the strongest evidence for impact on health and was informed by analysis of the provincial and local policy contexts, practices of other municipalities and stakeholder interviews. The Framework's contents were refined according to feedback from multidisciplinary stakeholder workshops. The HBS Framework identifies minimum standards for built environment core elements that developers need to address in their applications. The Framework was created to be simple and instructive with applicability to a range of development locations and scales, and to various stages of the development approval process. Peel Public Health is leading several initiatives to support the use of the HBS as a part of the development application process. The HBS Framework is a tool that public health and planning can use to support the consideration of health impacts within municipalities' land use development processes.

  5. Decadal climate prediction with a refined anomaly initialisation approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volpi, Danila; Guemas, Virginie; Doblas-Reyes, Francisco J.; Hawkins, Ed; Nichols, Nancy K.

    2017-03-01

    In decadal prediction, the objective is to exploit both the sources of predictability from the external radiative forcings and from the internal variability to provide the best possible climate information for the next decade. Predicting the climate system internal variability relies on initialising the climate model from observational estimates. We present a refined method of anomaly initialisation (AI) applied to the ocean and sea ice components of the global climate forecast model EC-Earth, with the following key innovations: (1) the use of a weight applied to the observed anomalies, in order to avoid the risk of introducing anomalies recorded in the observed climate, whose amplitude does not fit in the range of the internal variability generated by the model; (2) the AI of the ocean density, instead of calculating it from the anomaly initialised state of temperature and salinity. An experiment initialised with this refined AI method has been compared with a full field and standard AI experiment. Results show that the use of such refinements enhances the surface temperature skill over part of the North and South Atlantic, part of the South Pacific and the Mediterranean Sea for the first forecast year. However, part of such improvement is lost in the following forecast years. For the tropical Pacific surface temperature, the full field initialised experiment performs the best. The prediction of the Arctic sea-ice volume is improved by the refined AI method for the first three forecast years and the skill of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation is significantly increased compared to a non-initialised forecast, along the whole forecast time.

  6. 75 FR 1799 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Accreditation of Commercial Laboratories and Approval...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-13

    ... information collection be extended with no change to the burden hours. This document is published to obtain... appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological techniques or other forms of information... information in deciding whether to approve individuals or businesses desiring to measure bulk products or to...

  7. The Effect of Grain-refinement on Zn-10Al Alloy Damping Properties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piwowarski G.

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper is devoted to grain-refinement of the medium-aluminium zinc based alloys (MAl-Zn. The system examined was sand cast Zn- 10 wt. %. Al binary alloy (Zn-10Al doped with commercial Al-3 wt. % Ti - 0.15 wt. % C grain refiner (Al-3Ti-0.15C GR. Basing on the measured attenuation coefficient of ultrasonic wave it was stated that together with significantly increased structure fineness damping decreases only by about 10 - 20%. The following examinations should establish the influence of the mentioned grain-refinement on strength and ductility of MAl-Zn cast alloys.

  8. Adaptive mesh refinement with spectral accuracy for magnetohydrodynamics in two space dimensions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosenberg, D; Pouquet, A; Mininni, P D

    2007-01-01

    We examine the effect of accuracy of high-order spectral element methods, with or without adaptive mesh refinement (AMR), in the context of a classical configuration of magnetic reconnection in two space dimensions, the so-called Orszag-Tang (OT) vortex made up of a magnetic X-point centred on a stagnation point of the velocity. A recently developed spectral-element adaptive refinement incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code is applied to simulate this problem. The MHD solver is explicit, and uses the Elsaesser formulation on high-order elements. It automatically takes advantage of the adaptive grid mechanics that have been described elsewhere in the fluid context (Rosenberg et al 2006 J. Comput. Phys. 215 59-80); the code allows both statically refined and dynamically refined grids. Tests of the algorithm using analytic solutions are described, and comparisons of the OT solutions with pseudo-spectral computations are performed. We demonstrate for moderate Reynolds numbers that the algorithms using both static and refined grids reproduce the pseudo-spectral solutions quite well. We show that low-order truncation-even with a comparable number of global degrees of freedom-fails to correctly model some strong (sup-norm) quantities in this problem, even though it satisfies adequately the weak (integrated) balance diagnostics

  9. Adaptive local surface refinement based on LR NURBS and its application to contact

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmermann, Christopher; Sauer, Roger A.

    2017-12-01

    A novel adaptive local surface refinement technique based on Locally Refined Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (LR NURBS) is presented. LR NURBS can model complex geometries exactly and are the rational extension of LR B-splines. The local representation of the parameter space overcomes the drawback of non-existent local refinement in standard NURBS-based isogeometric analysis. For a convenient embedding into general finite element codes, the Bézier extraction operator for LR NURBS is formulated. An automatic remeshing technique is presented that allows adaptive local refinement and coarsening of LR NURBS. In this work, LR NURBS are applied to contact computations of 3D solids and membranes. For solids, LR NURBS-enriched finite elements are used to discretize the contact surfaces with LR NURBS finite elements, while the rest of the body is discretized by linear Lagrange finite elements. For membranes, the entire surface is discretized by LR NURBS. Various numerical examples are shown, and they demonstrate the benefit of using LR NURBS: Compared to uniform refinement, LR NURBS can achieve high accuracy at lower computational cost.

  10. Numerical analysis of impurity separation from waste salt by investigating the change of concentration at the interface during zone refining process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Ho-Gil; Shim, Moonsoo; Lee, Jong-Hyeon; Yi, Kyung-Woo

    2017-09-01

    The waste salt treatment process is required for the reuse of purified salts, and for the disposal of the fission products contained in waste salt during pyroprocessing. As an alternative to existing fission product separation methods, the horizontal zone refining process is used in this study for the purification of waste salt. In order to evaluate the purification ability of the process, three-dimensional simulation is conducted, considering heat transfer, melt flow, and mass transfer. Impurity distributions and decontamination factors are calculated as a function of the heater traverse rate, by applying a subroutine and the equilibrium segregation coefficient derived from the effective segregation coefficients. For multipass cases, 1d solutions and the effective segregation coefficient obtained from three-dimensional simulation are used. In the present study, the topic is not dealing with crystal growth, but the numerical technique used is nearly the same since the zone refining technique was just introduced in the treatment of waste salt from nuclear power industry because of its merit of simplicity and refining ability. So this study can show a new application of single crystal growth techniques to other fields, by taking advantage of the zone refining multipass possibility. The final goal is to achieve the same high degree of decontamination in the waste salt as in zone freezing (or reverse Bridgman) method.

  11. Computing Refined Buneman Trees in Cubic Time

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brodal, G.S.; Fagerberg, R.; Östlin, A.

    2003-01-01

    Reconstructing the evolutionary tree for a set of n species based on pairwise distances between the species is a fundamental problem in bioinformatics. Neighbor joining is a popular distance based tree reconstruction method. It always proposes fully resolved binary trees despite missing evidence...... in the underlying distance data. Distance based methods based on the theory of Buneman trees and refined Buneman trees avoid this problem by only proposing evolutionary trees whose edges satisfy a number of constraints. These trees might not be fully resolved but there is strong combinatorial evidence for each...... proposed edge. The currently best algorithm for computing the refined Buneman tree from a given distance measure has a running time of O(n 5) and a space consumption of O(n 4). In this paper, we present an algorithm with running time O(n 3) and space consumption O(n 2). The improved complexity of our...

  12. Trial endpoints for drug approval in oncology: Chemoprevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beitz, J

    2001-04-01

    As with other drugs, new drug applications for marketing approval of chemopreventive drugs must include data from adequate and well-controlled clinical trials that demonstrate effectiveness and safety for the intended use. This article summarizes the regulatory requirements for traditional marketing approval, as well as for approval under the accelerated approval regulations. Unlike traditional approval, accelerated approval is based on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. Discussions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the validity of trial endpoints that may serve as surrogates for clinical benefit for accelerated approval should take place as early as possible in drug development. Meetings with the FDA to discuss these issues may be requested throughout the clinical development of a new drug.

  13. Factors affecting the grain-refinement of aluminum using titanium and boron additives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, G.P.; Pearson, J.

    1976-01-01

    The development of grain-refining techniques for the casting of aluminum, and the results achieved using additions of ternary Al--Ti--B master-alloys, are briefly described. A test procedure is given for assessing the relative effectiveness of these master-alloys, and the results are related to the various kinds of alloy treated, including those with constituents which poison the grain-refining agent. The equilibrium conditions which affect the behavior of the constituents of the grain-refined alloys are examined quantitatively from a thermodynamic viewpoint. One theory about the mechanism of nucleation of aluminum on titanium diboride is examined and found inapplicable. New data on the solubility of TiB 2 , ZrB 2 , TiC, ZrC, Cr 3 C 2 , and CrB 2 in liquid aluminum are presented graphically. Practical aspects of alloy behavior in grain-refining practice are analyzed and discussed on the basis of the quantitative data

  14. 78 FR 20176 - Credit for Renewable Electricity Production, Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-03

    ..., Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production, and Publication of Inflation Adjustment Factors and... renewable electricity production, refined coal production, and Indian coal production under section 45... resources, and to 2013 sales of refined coal and Indian coal produced in the United States or a possession...

  15. 77 FR 21835 - Credit for Renewable Electricity Production, Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-04-11

    ..., Refined Coal Production, and Indian Coal Production, and Publication of Inflation Adjustment Factors and... electricity production, refined coal production, and Indian coal production under section 45. DATES: The 2012... sales of refined coal and Indian coal produced in the United States or a possession thereof. Inflation...

  16. Directory of Certificates of Compliance for Radioactive Materials Packages. Summary report of NRC approved packages. Volume 1, Revision 8

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-10-01

    This directory contains a Summary Report of NRC Approved Packages (Volume 1), Certificates of Compliance (Volume 2), and a Summary Report of NRC Approved Quality Assurance Programs for Radioactive Material Packages (Volume 3). The purpose of this directory is to make available a convenient source of information on packagings which have been approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To assist in identifying packaging, an index by Model Number and corresponding Certificate of Compliance number is included at the back of each volume of the directory. The Summary Report includes a listing of all users of each package design prior to the publication date of the directory. Shipments of radioactive material utilizing these packagings must be in accordance with the provisions of 49 CFR 173.471 and 10 CFR Part 71, as applicable. In satisfying the requirements of Section 71.12, it is the responsibility of the licensees to insure them that they have a copy of the current approval and conduct their transportation activities in accordance with an NRC approved quality assurance program. Copies of the current approval may be obtained from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Document Room files (see Docket No. listed on each certificate) at 1717 H Street, Washington, DC 20555. Note that the general license of 10 CFR 71.12 does not authorize the receipt, possession, use or transfer of byproduct source, or special nuclear material; such authorization must be obtained pursuant to 10 CFR Parts 30 to 36, 40, 50, or 70

  17. Directory of certificates of compliance for radioactive materials packages. Summary report of NRC approved packages. Volume 1. Revision 9

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-10-01

    This directory contains a Summary Report of NRC Approved Packages (Volume 1), Certificates of Compliance (Volume 2), and a Summary Report of NRC Approved Quality Assurance Programs for Radioactive Material Packages (Volume 3). The purpose of this directory is to make available a convenient source of information on packagings which have been approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To assist in identifying packaging, an index by Model Number and Corresponding Certificate of Compliance number is included at the back of each volume of the directory. The Summary Report includes a listing of all users of each package design prior to the publication date of the directory. Shipments of radioactive material utilizing these packagings must be in accordance with the provisions of 49 CFR 173.471 and 10 CFR Part 71, as applicable. In satisfying the requirements of Sections 71.12, it is the responsibility of the licensees to insure them that they have a copy of the current approval and conduct their transportation activities in accordance with an NRC approved quality assurance program. Copies of the current approval may be obtained from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Document Room files (see Docket No. listed on each certificate) at 1717 H Street, Washington, DC 20555. Note that the general license of 10 CFR 71.12 does not authorize the receipt, possession, use or transfer of byproduct source, or special nuclear material; such authorization must be obtained pursuant to 10 CFR Parts 30 to 36, 40, 50, or 70

  18. Directory of certificates of compliance for radioactive materials packages. Summary report of NRC approved packages. Volume 1, Revision 7

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-11-01

    This directory contains a Summary Report of NRC Approved Packages (Volume 1), Certificates of Compliance (Volume 2), and a Summary Report of NRC Approved Quality Assurance Programs for Radioactive Material Packages (Volume 3). The purpose of this directory is to make available a convenient source of information on packagings which have been approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To assist in identifying packaging, an index by Model Number and corresponding Certificate of Compliance number is included at the back of each volume of the directory. The Summary Report includes a listing of all users of each package design prior to the publication date of the directory. Shipments of radioactive material utilizing these packagings must be in accordance with the provisions of 49 CFR 173.471 and 10 CFR Part 71, as applicable. In satisfying the requirements of Section 71.12, it is the responsibility of the licensees to insure that they have a copy of the current approval and conduct their transportation activities in accordance with an NRC approved quality assurance program. Copies of the current approval may be obtained from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Document Room files (see Docket No. listed on each certificate) at 1717 H Street, Washington, DC 20555. Note that the general license of 10 CFR 71.12 does not authorize the receipt, possession, use or transfer of byproduct source, or special nuclear material; such authorization must be obtained pursuant to 10 CFR Parts 30 to 36, 40, 50, or 70

  19. Former Soviet Union's refining sector faces big shakeout

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1993-01-01

    The crisis gripping the refining sector in the former Soviet Union (FSU) is deepening as that industry faces massive rationalization and restructuring. Refinery runs in FSU republics have been on the decline for a number of years. Peak throughput occurred in 1987 at 9.69 million b/d. In Russia, however, the peak came in 1980 at 6.5 million b/d. Given current operable refining capacity in the FSU, now down to about 9.27 million b/d distributed among 48 refineries, capacity utilization will average only about 65% this year. The paper discusses worsening conditions, a comparison of the FSU declines, the financial crisis, energy consumption, and the focus of FSU refineries on secondary capacity to upgrade the product mix

  20. Possibilities of obtaining and controlling high-quality pressure castings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Pietrowski

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the influence of the type of furnace charging melting, refining and modification silumins 226 and 231 on the porosity and microstructure of castings. It was shown that in order to reduce or eliminate the porosity of the castings is necessary to the refining ECOSAL-AL113 of liquid silumin both in the melting furnace, and in the ladle and an additional nitrogen, in the heat furnace modified and refining with nitrogen. To control the effects of refining and modifying the TDA method was used. It was found that based on crystal- lization curve can be qualitatively assess the gas porosity of the castings. In order to control and quality control silumins author developed a computer program using the method of TDA, which sets out: Rm, A5, HB and casting porosity P and the concentration of hydrogen in them. The program also informs the technological procedures to be performed for liquid silumin improper preparation.